Metropolis

In my short life I've developed a taste for a film that challenges me as a viewer and is more than the sum of it's parts. Metropolis is one such movie. While most will only give it credit for being a visual masterpiece, Metropolis is a well - rounded work with strong characters, themes and music. Not only does the character design have a fresh and captivating style, each character has his or hers own unique features. The setting is so rich and vibrant at times and dark and mysterious at others, it could only have been created through animation. The use of old western jazz and borderline ragtime music gives the huge city an earthy feeling, which is reflected in the architecture of the lower levels of the city. The themes are classic science fiction themes. I shy away from calling them derivative or repetitive because they still remain some of the most relevant ideas portrayed in any genre. Katsuhiro Otomo's screenplay is understated, contrasting the near "in your face" visuals. He is one of the most highly regarded writers in the genre, and he shows why here. The chilling ending is a destructive one, but it isn't the apocalyptic disaster some people make it out to be. The use of "Can't stop loving you" by Ray Charles frames the scene so well, and I found it far more moving and touching than the ending of Dr. Strangelove, which it is rightfully compared to. So, to all movie lovers, not just anime lovers, I ask you to go see this work of art and let it absorb you and change you. You will be better for it.

I'm not a big fan of Manga I must admit. The movies I've seen have been few and far between and while I certainly enjoyed the likes of Ninja Scroll, Akira and Ghost In The Shell, I've never had much urge to seek out a really wide knowledge of the genre. That being said though, Metropolis has to rank as one of my top five films of all time, not just the animated ones.

Telling the story of a far future world where humans and robots exist alongside one another, it focuses on the adventures of a Private Investigator and his son visiting the city for the first time and hunting down a missing robot called Tima. And what a city it is! The animation, simply put, is stunning. The epic scope of this vast urban world is beautifully captured on screen. It is richly detailed and lit up like a fantastic world of colour, like a fine piece of dramatic art that has come to life. The animation on the characters meanwhile is no less amazing, it is more akin to French than Japanese in stylistic terms, but is still very detailed and beautifully realised.

But this is no piece of aesthetic beauty with nothing to back it up as the storyline is truly gripping. As the boy befriends a young girl, both of them unaware that she is in fact an experimental robot, you find yourself getting swept up in their plight and they have just as much, if not more depth and emotion than any real-life actor's work.

Come the climax, you'll be simultaneously thrilled and left emotionally stunned. This is a magnificent film, I can't praise it enough.

Fritz Lang's original 'Metropolis' is an enduring classic of cinema. The techniques used at the time that it was made were absolutely astounding and it is still astounding to consider the technical achievement that Metropolis represents even these days. This Japanese re-telling of the classic story doesn't follow the plot of the original film, but they are linked due to the way that they both utilise grand settings for their thrills and although it was a lot more impressive in 1927, this version of the story is still a very decent film. I can't say that I'm a big fan of Japanese 'anime', but every time I see a film in it's style I tend to at least enjoy myself, and that can be said of this film. The plot has too many elements to be fully coherent, but it serves its purpose and is always second to the visuals anyway. The story follows two societies; robots and humans, and comes together when a private investigator's nephew meets a robot girl constructed to rule the city. The script is somewhat taught, this may be because of the fact that it has been translated into English, or it may just be a bad script. It doesn't really matter though as, again, the sharp visuals are always enough to distract the viewer from the other areas of the movie. It's almost a shame that this movie isn't better when you consider that it has an absolutely great source of inspiration, but then again you can hardly expect it to rival Fritz Lang's classic. On the whole, I recommend this movie if you've seen Lang's and want some more, but otherwise I just recommend the original classic.

For crying out loud, it's stylized! That's why the soundtrack is jazz and blues and stuff. That's why the character animation is "crappy".

Look at a comic book from the twenties/thirties, namely Herge's Tintin books, or Tezuka's manga (fifties actually), which this is based off of, DANG IT! The characters are designed to look like comic book character's from that era. Shinsaku looks like one of the Thompsons. Kenechi looks like a cross between Tintin and Astro Boy.

It's meant to be like a Prohibition era Chicago or something.

When I first saw this I was totally blown away by its beautiful animation and groundbreaking use of music! It really made me lyrical in a way few anime does - Rintaro and Otomo really has what it takes to make a masterpiece. The blend of charming old-fashioned technology and allusions to modern phenomenons makes it the perfect anime for the beginning of 21st century!

Metropolis is based on Tesuka Osamus first manga and later gave inspiration to his more famous "Astro Boy". Some story elements and characters from Tesukas later works are clearly inserted in Metropolis to make it work as a movie, which in this case is good... The choice of music is, in my opinion, daring and rather funny; jazzy tunes spiced with hits from the 60s (Ray Charles) sets the tone of the "optimistic atomic age". All in all, well made nostalgia...

I could go on forever with this rant, so I spare you that if you see this little animated gem! Rent it, buy it, steal it (if necessary ;) , you won't regret it!