Metropolis

Metropolis is…a silent film from 1927 by the German director Fritz Lang. It’s set in a dystopian future where some naive teenager tries to overcome the class system to pursue love.

Metropolis is…a manga written in 1949 by Osamu Tezuka. Its similarities to the original film are pretty limited, mainly because Tezuka hadn’t even seen the film when he wrote the manga. He’d only seen a single picture in a magazine and thought it looked pretty rad.

Metropolis is…an anime movie from 2001 that’s loosely based on Tezuka’s manga, but also tries to bring in some plot elements from the original movie. It had an all-star team ... on it, such as Rintaro the director, one of my all time favourite anime folks Katsuhiro Otomo doing the scripts, and the production being done at Madhouse.

Metropolis is…not very good.

I feel a bit awkward not liking Metropolis, because there’s a hell of a lot of things to like about it. For one, it’s fucking gorgeous. Incredible detail has gone into each background drawing and there is rarely a shot where characters aren’t moving. Even background characters are doing little things like picking up bottles and throwing coins and puffing cigars. It seems weird to highlight something like this, but when you spend all your time watching the usual cost-cutting techniques of anime produced for television, it really stands out here. The music is fantastic too. It’s very blues orientated, which ties into the seedy underworld feel the lower levels of this heavily class-based world have.

The movie clearly has an actual point to the story too. It’s about class warfare and how the lowest levels of society will rise up eventually. It’s particularly striking how the rebellion starts with the second class citizens throwing their little fight, but the real rebellion is right at the end when the robots all rise up under their ‘charismatic’ leader. Tie this is with government corruption and how the desires of those in power, as heartfelt and real those feelings might be, can lead to the destruction of their city. There’s some pretty obvious allusions to the Tower of Babel too and the danger of trying to become like a god. In other words, this movie is not like the other 2000-era movie with Katsuhiro Otomo on board, Steamboy. With Steamboy, all the pretty visuals in the world couldn’t hide that the story was a total damp squib with dumb idealism and pathetic characters mwahaha go my biased views go. With Metropolis, there’s clearly an artistic vision here and a story with proper depth.

So why am I not feeling all that hyped about Metropolis? This might be a bit harder to explain.

You know that thing I was praising earlier on in this review? How characters would always be moving, including the background characters? How detailed the background art was? The movie also seemed to realise how great it was at this and leant on it too much. You get a lot of scenes of one character walking, another character walking with him, the second character looking back and slowing down, then jogging to catch back up with the character they were walking with. There’s lots of scenes of characters walking through the streets, or robots doing busywork, or fat Tezuka designs smoking cigars. It’s all set-dressing to develop the world, but most of it is redundant. When I say ‘a lot of scenes’, I really mean it. At least half of the first hour of the movie was spent on these shots of ‘world-building’. They get very boring very fast, which also serves to give the movie a painfully slow plodding pace.

The story is told almost entirely through symbolism and representative actions, which I generally like. That’s how I normally feel a story should be told. Thing is, this leaves the characters with rather little to say, but speak they do anyway. This leaves them with nothing of interest to say beyond idle chit chat, which leads me to the obvious conclusion that every single one is a boring person. Occasionally they might say something of interest that ties into the overall themes of the movie, but because the animation has been diligently working that point constantly, it’s again pretty redundant stuff. Combine these non-characters with a story that takes forever to move anywhere and has very little of excitement occurring and you get what makes Metropolis such a drag.

I knew writing this review would be difficult. Reading back over the last 2 paragraphs now, a lot of the things I appear to be complaining about are aspects of other anime I love. The whole thing about characters not being people but merely ideals slotted into the story might as well be a line from a review of Madoka Magica. Letting the visuals tell the story and leaving the characters to just blabber on about whatever could be a line from a review of FLCL. So what is it that this movie is missing? Some kind of X factor? Some oomph to get me invested?

Perhaps the best course of action might be to look at the end of the movie and see what it did right. For all the plodding most of the movie did, the end really ramps up and provides some of the most striking imagery I’ve seen in any anime. Absolutely jaw-dropping, end-of-the-world events centring on what had previously been this figure of purity and idealism warp into a mutant-baby-from-Akira monstrosity, but still had parts of its original face intact to make the shock turn even more grotesque and eerie. That scene had oomph, but it also wouldn’t have worked if the proceeding 90 minutes of rather boring studge hadn’t existed to build up the themes in the first place. It’s one of those cases where some reviewers would claim you require ‘patience’, which is a nice way of saying that the piece suffers from an inability to make its world-building and set up interesting to watch and only becomes interesting once Shit Starts Getting Real.

When Shit Starts Getting Real in Metropolis, it’s an exhilarating experience that brings together the narrative arcs of several plot threads in one satisfying conclusion. It’s a shame that they couldn’t make the entire rest of the movie interesting rather than relying on high production values and hoping that alone will keep you entertained.

Madhouse Studios you’ve done it again. This art studio’s art always amazes me. For this movie they use a mix a cells and digital that looks drop dead gorgeous. There is a lot attention to detail and also very colorful. Must say, I love Mr. Tezuakes character designs.

This film is adaptation of one of Mr. Tezuaka’s earlier sci-fi work (before Astro Boy) Metropolis. There are some great interviews with the director talking about Mr. Tezuaka on the feature disc.

The music for this movie is awesome, does a good job of setting the mood, while also being diverse and enjoyable. One of my favorite songs ... is the opening music; it’s this great New Orleans jazz with leading saxophone.
The story is well pasted and has some social commentary with the use of robots.

Great movie guys, go buy this one. Has tons of great extra features.

Let me take a moment to talk about Metropolis. Metropolis was one of the most notable pioneering sci-fi works released back in 1927. It was directed by Fritz Lang and written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou. The film is a classic of the genre, in spite of some scenes being lost, and every sci-fi fan should watch it. Why do I bring this up when it has nothing to do with anime? Well, back in 1949 Tezuka Osamu, who you may know as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, made a manga inspired by the film, also titled Metropolis. ... In 2001, Madhouse and Tezuka Productions came out with an anime film version. Which is what we're looking at today.

Story:

The narrative opens in the titular Metropolis with a celebration for the opening of the new Ziggurat. Our protagonists are the private investigator, Shunsaku Ban and his nephew, Kenichi. They've traveled to Metropolis to find and arrest a Doctor guilty of harvesting human organs. Little do ther realise that he's working with the great aristocrat, Duke Red, to create a specialised robot for a specific purpose. They find the doctor's laboratory burning and Kenichi gets separated from his uncle and stuck in a lower part of the city with the robot, Tima.

The story doesn't have a bad premise, even though it's not the one from the original silent film or even close to it. But it quickly becomes riddled with problems. A big one is the romance they have between Tima and Kenichi. It's incredibly weak with the two characters showing no chemistry nor sharing any substantial moments. They meet and they're amicable towards each other so it must be love, I guess. The biggest one is probably Duke Red's ultimate scheme. It reads like a bad silver age comic plot, but without the glorious cheesiness that made silver age comics entertaining. Instead, the film plays it completely seriously. The pacing is all over the place, with some scenes dragging and others getting rushed through.

Characters:

The characters are severely under-developed. Most of them fill a basic archetypal role and never move beyond that. Which is a real problem when they try to get you to sympathise with them. Something bad happened to that guy with three or four lines? Yeah, if you don't flesh out your characters, we aren't going to care. The big exceptions are the characters with even less personality. Tima moves well below under-developed and is just very flat and primarily serves the purpose of being obsessive about Kenichi with little if any personality or motivation beyond him. Yes, the 1927 film was somehow more progressive in terms of gender portrayals than the 2001 one. There are other characters like that, mostly ones who appear in only a few scenes, though. Tima is the only major character with that particular problem.

Art:

The artwork is by far the best part of the film. The characters are done in a kind of retro design style reminiscent of other anime based on Tezuka's work. Which does work very well given the source material. The backgrounds are magnificent. The futuristic tech is really cool looking, although some of it seems like it was deliberately designed around looking cool while being grossly impractical. The fire fighting equipment in particular involves a bunch of small parts that all have to converge and fuse into the main device. It does look cool, but it makes the world seem kind of stupid.

Sound:

The voice acting is mostly pretty competent. The actors all do their work well enough. The big exception is Imoto Yuka who can't be asked to emote and gives a very monotone performance. It may be a matter of direction, but I haven't heard her in anything else, this film was the only acting credit I could find for her, so it's possible that the direction was fine and she was just bad. The music is really good.

Ho-yay:

There really isn't any in this. 1/10.

Final Thoughts:

This movie is not good but I would hesitate to call it ungood. Visually, it's a real treat. The music is good and the acting is, mostly, okay. That being said, it has a lot of problems. The story is weak. The characters are bland at best. It's a film that's flashy but lacking in any real substance. You might want to give it a watch if you're really into high quality animation and sci-fi, but if you're going to want a compelling narrative with interesting characters you'll want to skip it. As such, I can't recommend it for most people. Although you should definitely watch the silent film that it's very loosely based on. My final rating is going to be a 4/10. Tomorrow, we'll leap to something else. Possibly involving time travel.

Metropolis has a complex story plot. There are several characters and events going on to keep up with. The story focuses more on the characters than the events which is kind of a downfall since this can cause some to get lost on the way. Overall the story is very unique and interesting. The best part out of the whole movie was the ending. I could watch the ending a thousand times.

The character development in Metropolis was appealing. The characters brought the movie alive; they are all one of a kind. Each of them had their own unique looks, styles, and distinctive personalities.

Metropolis is ... best known for its beautiful CGI; complete eye candy. The character animation didn’t blend in that well with the other CGI structures, but the strange daring mixture pulled me more into the movie.

I’ve seen Metropolis only in English dialogue, which I thought was great. Each of the voice actors portrayed the characters very well. The soundtrack to Metropolis was amazing. I really loved the music through out the movie, especially the ending song.

I would recommend watching Metropolis; it is a true delight.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone who wants either a thrilling action/ sci-fi movie, a visually stunning and cinematographic movie or for wonderful world-building. This review is spoiler free and will speak of the movie in a way for the reader to grasp the overall idea of the film.

It's setting is a 20's set era in a sci-fi world were humans and robots live together. Although the theme of robots against humanity is a often-used plot device, it works really well in the movie and is not even the main plot.
Metropolis is based of the manga with the same title by the mangaka ... legend Osamu Tezuka. It was written by the mangaka and director of Akira. The manga was based on the live-action movie with the same title from year 1927. The anime movie is from 2001 and directed by Rintaro and made by MAD HOUSE studios (with some input from the Tezuka studios).

If you're not into the visual style and the Osamu Tezuka stylized characters you will maybe have a hard time getting through the film. The films story is good and becomes very touching, but if you don't like the style then you probably will find the movie a bit boring. It takes some time before its becomes really interesting. It eventually becomes very touching and the cinematography makes it even more beautiful. You really notice how the movie is made by a mastermind and by a incredible team of animation expert. It's unlike anything in the rest of the anime world (and even the animation world over all). The colors are wonderful with the richness of gold and red often. But the colors also tells the story. Like in the blue shadows when it's more melancholic, or when its in the colorful city when its action-packed and lively.

The soundtrack is a wonderful jazzy styled soundtrack and it makes the scenes even more delightful. It really sells the world of the movie to be in the 20's and makes the movie even better. And when it's used in the intense scenes; it really makes the scenes so intense that you're heart almost stops beating (not actually, don't worry).

The characters are very enjoyable and you start to really rot for the good guys. The antagonist of the story who's after the main characters has more dimension to him. His actions can be understood and he's not entirely evil, but hes ideals and goals made him the bad guy. The characters are not that dwelled into on a personal level, but enough so that we understand their intentions, relationship and personalities in a likable way.

I really enjoyed this movie. The visuals are so incredibly stunning, some scenes are breathtaking. Sometimes it's so dark and anxious, sometimes it's very jazzy and the animation becomes bubbly, and sometimes it's so angelic. I think it's highly underrated by films like Ghost in the shell and Akira who has overshined hidden gems like Metropolis. People think of those two when they think old anime movie classics. And rightfully so! But Metropolis is such a joy and has such a rich world of soft sci-fi. I hope this review helped somewhat, and I hoped you enjoyed the movie as much as I did!

Metropolis is one of the few anime titles fortunate enough to make it into the mainstream. Along with Ghost in the Shell and the works of Miyazaki, this is one of the films that it is cool for cultured people to like.

And like it they do. As of this writing, the movie has 60 critical review on Rottentomatoes.com, with a 91% approval rating. Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars, and called it "One of the best animated films I have ever seen".

For all this acclaim, the movie nearly didn't get made at all. Osamu Tezuka felt that his ... original manga was deeply flawed and far from his best work, and only after his death could the film be made.

If Tezuka through some working of magic or science was given the opportunity to see this film made against his wishes, even he would have to admit that it does his art justice. The original character designs are given fluid animation and backed by impressive and well-integrated CGI. The movie is simply gorgeous, and a viewer watching only for the eyecandy certainly won't be disappointed.

However, simple spectacle is not enough to carry a film for many of us, and this is where nuanced characterization and good storytelling come in. The central story, about a boy and an android girl on the run from the antagonist, is one with potential. Unfortunately, the supposed 'main' characters are hardly fleshed out at all, and the audience is given little reason to care about their fate. The obligatory 'android learning how to become human' moments never happen, or any other development of the two leads for that matter.

The setting and supporting cast are considerably more interesting. Over the course of the movie, the city undergoes considerable change, as social forces and malevolent schemes ultimately lead to upheaval and chaos. And the antagonists have a decent amount of personal issues and character development - more than the leads, in fact. However, the simple truth is none of this is enough to carry the film in lieu of an interesting central story.

And then, in the final ten minutes, the stakes are suddenly raised, and attention is suddenly riveted to the screen. The final scenes are moving - even devastatingly so.

However, despite its excellent finale and interesting setting, this film's core is empty. The eyecandy makes it worth a watch, but it fails as a dramatic piece.

tl;dr - Good visuals, setting, and bad guys. Unfortunately, two incredibly boring lead characters waste almost all the potential the movie had. The ending is good, though.

Of course, this is very much a minority view, and you'll probably see the movie anyways. I'd just recommend that you rent before you splurge on the super-deluxe box set.

It's actually upsetting just how forgotten this movie is, because there is so much to love about it. I feel like it genuinely earns a spot up there with other brilliant classics in anime like Akria, Ghost in the Shell, and Perfect Blue. So much work went into the production of this film and I can appreciate every scene in it without fail because of how much care and love is put into it.

The best part of this movie is easily the animation. There's not a second that goes by where something isn't moving. There could be a very basic shot of the main characters ... walking down a street, and you can see stray cats jumping around or other people going about their business as the town lulls into a quiet evening all in the same frame. The environment becomes alive with dynamic lighting and ambience at every corner that can fully immerse you into the setting. All of this is matched with a level of detail in the sound design that completely elevates everything about the visuals.

The story runs with a simple enough premise at the beginning with a crime investigation, but quickly evolves into this gargantuan epic as you get a deeper look into Metropolis and see the boiling revolutionary movements, the corrupt bureaucracy of its government, and the multitudes of robots mistreated by both. The conflicts of these groups continuously unfold as the backdrop for the main characters to navigate through and eventually involve themselves with towards the end.

This is my favorite anime movie. To me, it shows the promise of what anime movies could've been after the turn of the millennium.

Note: might contain some spoilers.

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Visual treat of the highest order.

I'm not in position to talk about the divergence between the manga and anime, so I'll just review this movie as a separate piece of art on its own. Any so-called "otaku" who doesn't rate this highly (at least for the visuals) is a questionable one for that matter. I'm absolutely head over heels in love with this movie! It has different personal interests of mine, all combined in one place: retrofuturism, Art Deco, and reflexive reasoning on the AI question.

This particular story doesn't go very deep, but it offers the questions we all ask in ... a simple and rather elegant way. Even the emotions are stripped and toned down to their proper places. Tima is the potential of human intelligence, and how that is capable of high creativity and the utmost destruction as well; where do we set the limits? Kenichi is the twin brother of intelligence, that is emotions, and both cannot function without the other, that's the secret of their relationship, and that's why he was handed over her heart by the end. But that's just my perspective, each viewer will reason his way through the plot and its loaded questions and metaphors.

Another thing that I liked about this project is how it stayed true to the conceptual signature of Tezuka's work, those timeless curvatures. It's also loaded with cinema's golden age references, and even 'Dr. Strangelove' ending reference was there. Clever superimposed mnemonic scenes when characters are recalling certain memories as black and white film snippets.

I can't applaud enough for everyone who worked on this project, it's a must watch for anyone seriously interested in animation.

"Metropolis" is the embodiment of every reason I watch Anime and the reason I fell in love with this art form.

Wonderful characters with distinct designs. Music that is catchy, but fits the mood. The beautiful settings that inspire a sense of awe and amazement. From top to bottom and beginning to end, this film is a masterpiece of animation. It inspires the three things that make a full day, it makes you laugh. It brings you to tears. And it makes you think.

The story itself is a bit of a re-tread. Somewhat Pinocchio (the character animation is very reminiscent of early Disney), some ... taken from Fritz Lange's original film, and various Asimov and sci-fi concepts that have been done before. But, never has there been so much heart put into this. That's what this movie has more of than anything else. Heart.

Sub vs. Dub is a bit of a wash, both casts do outstanding jobs in their performances.

The beauty of this film cannot be adequately described in a simple review. You must watch this film. Not as an Anime fan, but as a human being. This is a great movie, plan and simple. Cheers!

Watching this movie, my heart soared. Not only is it a great film. It is the best anime film of all time. Yes, this is slight better than any Miyazaki film, adapted from the godfather of manga, Osamu Tezuaka. Possibly remembered for creating Kimba the White Lion, and Astro Boy. It is a great film for its complex and engaging story. Set against the backdrop of the futuristic 20th century, Metropolis is a city-state that is divided between the rich and poor, human and robots, imagination and science. The Story of Metropolis might have been adapted from Fritz Lang's silent film of the same name. ... But this is one level higher. Its tragic and heartwarming characters give elevation to this film. If I were to disect one frame from this film, I would be still be left breathless. In fact this review doesn't even do the film any justice. You must see this movie.

Coming from the mind of Ozamu Tezuka and directed by Rintaro, Metropolis is a movie of titanic proportions. It is an ambitious film which applies modern animation techniques to Tezuka classic art style and themes.It is an eye-popping, engaging experience. It also too flawed to achieve true greatness.

The movie takes place in bustling, multi-leveled city of Metropolis, populated by an abundance of people and robots. A celebration is taking place for the building of the of the Ziggurat, a giant tower representing the height of technology. However, not everyone is celebrating, as the working class of the city find themselves in a depressed and ... frustrated state; blaming robots for taking their jobs and resenting the upper class that reaps the rewards of advancement as they struggle. In this volatile atmosphere Japanese detective and his nephew, Kenichi, arrive in the city in search for a wanted mad scientist. Their search eventually leads to Kenichi meeting Tima, a humanoid robot made at the behest of Duke Red, one of the most powerful men in Metropolis. The two are soon after pursued by Duke Red's violent adoptive son, Rock, who wants to destroy Tima. The tension in the city is about to come to a head, and Tima and Kenichi are right in the middle of it all.

Metropolis plays out equal parts sci-fi epic and suspense thriller. The futuristic city of Metropolis is the ideal setting for the theme of the relationship between humans and and robots. On the human's side of things, they treat robots with either indifference or aggression. For those in power like Duke Red, robots are nothing more than tools to serve their purposes; things to be disposed of when they no longer can perform their tasks. Others like Rock and the working class rebels take violent action. The rebels feeling that the increase of robot labor has displaced them as I mentioned earlier in my plot summery. Rock show a general dislike for robots and ruthlessness to anyone who gets in his way robot and human alike; however he has a particular resentment for Tima, angered that a robot has a higher place in his adoptive father's eyes than himself. The robots follow their assigned roles accordingly, however they also seem to be more sentient than humans treat them. This is most evident in Tima, who is so human-like that the fact she is a robot doesn't occur to Kenichi or herself; but also in the other robots in the movie, especially the robot detective that assists Kenichi and his uncle.

On the technical side of things, Metropolis is a well textured creation. One thing that makes it look striking is Tezuka's character designs. They are in the same roundish style as Tezuka's iconic Astroboy, giving them a kind of classic look; they come to life beautifully in the fluid animation of a feature film. The city of Metropolis is quite a sight, filled with intricately designed buildings, fantastical future tech, and enormous crowds of people and robots. The city is just stunning in detail and filled with color, at times it feels a bit too excessive and looks gaudy, but perhaps that is the point. The grandeur fits the rich part of the city nicely, but it is a bit jarring that the more depressed areas that are underground are almost equally as colorful. Ultimately, this is just nitpicking on my part however, because the movie looks gorgeous overall. The music is New Orleans style jazz, making the whole movie feel a bit like a Mardi Gras celebration, which fits the often over-stylized visuals perfectly.

The big stumbling point of the movie is its characters. Honestly, it was kind of hard to find a character I could connect or relate to, because all of them seemed to be devises to either move the plot along or make a point. Kenichi is really just another one of those kind, naive young boy characters that just embody purity; while that isn't a bad thing on its own, he never develops into anything more, which makes him pretty uninteresting. Tima's development raises some very interesting ideas about what might happen as technology becomes more advanced, but as she is just developing a personality throughout the movie, it is hard to find anything to attach to in her. Likewise, Duke Red is interesting, especially regarding his relationship with Tima and Rock, but isn't given enough screen time to fully develop. This isn't to say that they are bad characters, they are just lacking the spark which would have made them great characters. Rock is probably the most interesting as the vicious antagonist, driven by a superiority complex and jealousy of Tima.

The story also slouches near the end, turning into the doomsday scenario you probably saw coming. It is not that big a problem, as the climax is a fantastic visual spectacle with some impressive scenes of mass destruction, and the movie wraps up pretty well. However, it does come across as somewhat uninspired, and to an extent rushed.

Although not without some pretty big flaws, Metropolis is a well spent hour and fifty minutes. There are some really good high-concept themes that provide nice food for thought. On top of that, the visuals are nothing short of spectacular. If nothing else, Metropolis works as a thoughtful piece of eye candy entertainment.

I just watched this today and I have to say this is definitely one of my favorite animated movies of all time. I did not expect to be on the verge of tears but I was, the ending is absolutely phenomenal.

The animation itself is some of the most beautiful I've seen and the music is great as well. I pretty much love almost everything about this film. My only real complaint about the movie is the voice acting felt off sometimes, but that's my own fault since I watched the dub because I was watching it with my little brother.

I highly recommend this ... movie with every fiber of my being. My God I just saw it and I already plan on rewatching it again tonight.

Let’s begin discussing Metropolis by going over the people involved: a) directed by the famous Rintaro the co-founder of Madhouse b) sound directed by the famous Masafumi Mima (Macross) c) script writer and Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo d) animation by Studio Madhouse and e) loosely based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka. Now it goes without saying that Studio Madhouse went all out on this one.

Right out of the gate, visually, this anime blows everything out of the water. The viewers see a massive city with so much detail and the aesthetic of something out the 1940’s and yet futuristic in a Blade Runner sense. ... In this utopia-like city of Metropolis, humans and robots live and work together creating a prosperous economy and lifestyle. However, with each passing day, devious plots within the government, violence and prejudice increase with each “malfunction,” and a slight theme taken from an old German silent film, Metropolis pulls all of these together in masterful fashion.

Similar to Tezuka’s famous Astor Boy, Metropolis’ main focus is on the traveling Detective’s son Kenichi whom have come to the city to track down an organ stealing criminal. Naturally, the case doesn’t go very smoothly. Upon the fateful meeting between killer and detective, Kenichi discovers a young lady called Tima. They get separated and thus begins solving the mystery behind the giant structure in the city called the Ziggurat, and love and despair develops from there.

Metropolis is simply rich with its detail in animation. Not a single scene has been taken for granted. Locations are constantly changing and the ‘wow-factor’ always repeats with each passing moment. Character development never stops. From beginning to end, main characters protagonist and antagonist the like all go through moments of change to justify actions. All questions get answered with nothing seeming out of place or mistimed. The only odd aspect about Metropolis is the emphasis in character design. Tima and Kenichi are childlike heroes, innocent, and have that early 80’s facial drawing of large round eyes, while all the other characters have more realistic faces and proportions.

Madhouse and the staff did very well. This is not just another film and nor is it anything like what Studio Ghibli puts out. Metropolis doesn’t do anything simple, the detail is outstanding, the story is challenging, and the overall nature of the film touches constantly on ‘real-life’ issues. This is definitely a must watch, and anyone who has never seen anime before should put this at the top of their list.

A must see

This movie has wonderful animation, in parts exceptional beautiful.
The soundtrack fits, and the story is very good and thought provoking.
The editing is done very well, and by my opinion makes the movie flow perfectly. The charcters have substance and you care for them.
And Its not a typical anime.

This movie is an animation adaption of the silent black and white movie from 1927 by Fritz Lang.
(Even though it's a silent movie you should watch it, Its great. The most expensive movie of its time)

I think this new version works well. It hasnt as much obvious references to marxism and the christian bible, as the ... original one does.
But they both have an interesting philosophy and also perhaps morale.

The reason I first wanted to watch this movie, was because I had first seen a fantastic AMV that really made the anime look like it would be really good. Time passes, and I cannot find it anywhere on the internet. More time passes, and I cannot find it at the Blockbuster near by. A lot more time passes, and I go to a different Blockbuster, and wouldn't you know? There it was! So, when I got home, I sat down and prepared myself for a good movie, but you know what I got? Something very mediocre instead :/.

Metropolis for me, was very mediocre for ... numerous reasons, first lets start with the story. The story itself, was very difficult to follow. There are many sub-plots and all of those are trying to coexist peacefully, but that doesn't happen. You have the whole robot thing, and the whole rebellion thing, and Tima and Kenichi's relationship going on, and the whole father-son relationship, and Tima's struggle to figure out who she is; with all of that the director really needed to have all the sub-plots flow together smoothly, but it didn't. It seems like the only time you really feel like the story is going smoothly and together is at the end.

Another thing that REALLY bugged me was the music. You can tell the director of music really loves Jazz, because that's all there is in the movie. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Jazz, but it seemed the director just put anything he wanted anywhere. Yeah, there was maybe one song that fit well with its ironic tone in a random scene, but even at the end, the most dramatic part of the movie, the music seemed very anti-climatic, and drew my attention away from the scene.

The next contributing factor is the time period/scenery. Hey, the city was pretty cool and the idea was pretty unique for it, but in the movie, you barely get ANY info on the city, or the blimp like thing they introduce at the very beginning. I still don't even know what it was used for. :?. And the whole moving from level to level thing was never really explained either. The time period is also very confusing, because by the looks of some of the clothes, it seems some of them are in the 40's or something, yet they're in a city with robots? Weird, weird, weird.

Personally, I thought the only thing that redeemed the movie was its main character. The main girl, Tima, is interesting because she's very unique and she represents purity/innocence in the movie, and I liked that. She had a certain quality about her that made her appealing, for me at least; something that kept me guessing. Other than that, the other characters aren't really that interesting or different.

Altogether, I give this movie a 5. For me, it was built up to be something it wasn't, people going as far as saying this was a "classic", but really? I think anime can do much better than that. If someone were to ask if I would recommend this to them, I would say definitely "No, its probably just going to be a disappointing waist of time". If you want something better and similar, I say go for "Origins, Spirits of the Past". Personally, I would think that has a way higher chance of being something you'll enjoy, depending on what you like.

This is one of my favorite animated films and I'm a proud owner of the DVD. Metropolis doesn't slow down and is interesting from beginning to end and is accompanied by incredible animation. The character designs by Osamu Tezuka look GREAT in the colorful digital animation of this film, released in 2001. The stylistic look of the film is addicting and fascinating, creating a spectacular setting that you can really indulge yourself on.

The plot is fairly easy to follow and the characters are easy to like. It's a good sci-fi story with its own elements of social commentary. I rarely end up liking stories involving ... robots, but I have a soft spot for their oldschool portrayal in this film. I'll admit, though, the plot isn't as solid as could be, but it still has a very solid foundation and nice pacing to it.

Metropolis is an enjoyable film with eye-popping animation that I have no doubt anyone who starts this visual adventure of a masterpiece will watch all the way to the end, and will probably appreciate it.

I really enjoyed this anime and would have given it a 10 but for one thing. The first thing you read in "review tips and guidelines" starts out "Don't steal anyone else's work...". I keep reading where "Metropolis" was adapted from a manga of the same name that is a load of BS. The reason "Metroplis" is so good is it's an anime copy, plot point for plot point, of Fritz Lang's classic silent picture "Metropolis" Nowhere absolutely nowhere is this mentioned. If you're going to adapt someone else's work you should at least give them credit.

Metropolis is a 2001 anime film loosely based on Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga of the same name, which itself has many parallels with director Fritz Lang's groundbreaking 1927 science fiction silent film. It's clearly a movie with quite the genealogy but this is no doubt deliberate. It's a film that celebrates its homages too grandly to be chastised as derivative, and by using this unusually vast well of influences it stands out among anime at large and becomes something special. Given the amount of changes from the original manga, perhaps it's less Tezuka who's responsible for the movie's qualities but rather the legendary anime director ... Rintaro, who not only combines his favorite elements of sci-fi, film noir, and animation with a sense of unrestrained nostalgia, but also visually frames them with their respective eras through frequent use of old-fashioned techniques like sidewipes and iris zooms, 50s-styled character designs, and a soundtrack composed by Toshiyuki Honda that draws solely upon western jazz and classical music.

To get the most important thing out of the way first, Metropolis is one of the best-looking animated movies ever made. Even putting aside a huge budget that avoids simple frame rate problems, Metropolis is practically an ode to nearly every major type of animation, combining hand-drawn, painted, digital, and computer generated backgrounds and objects with fluidity I never thought possible by keeping background shading consistent even when parts of the backgrounds are from different origins, and by keeping colors and tones consistent yet broad in a fantastically surreal way. Similar to Rintaro's direction, Metropolis's animation combines the classic era with the modern era, and even borrows several architectures and themes from the sets and story of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. This is the kind of unrestrained imagination animation was meant to bring to life in ways live-action is limited by, and although it largely comes from a base of nostalgia, Metropolis is still a forward-thinking animated movie among any of its lower-aiming contemporaries.

The advanced city of Metropolis is the world's leader in both technology and culture, but although the gigantic city has a glitzy outside and a powerful public reputation, turmoil is threatening to push the city downwards from under the surface. Detective Hige and his assistant/nephew Kenichi are sent to investigate Metropolis in search of the mad scientist Dr. Laughton. Dr. Laughton is hiding in Metropolis under employ from the city's ruler Duke Red, who's commanded Dr. Laughton to create an android (similar to the one in Lang's Metropolis) of his beloved yet deceased daughter Tima to soothe his grief and perhaps be part of a much more sinister plot. Meanwhile, Duke Red's adopted but neglected son Rock grows jealous of his father's attention, and also due to his prejudice against robots seeks to kill the newly awakened Tima as Hige and Kenichi attempt to protect her and discover Duke Red's true plans. Meanwhile, unrest increases between humans and the robot labor force (another theme borrowed from Lang's film), and at the center are a group of anti-robot terrorists known as the Marduks and Duke Red's latest pride and joy, the flying mechanical blimp known as the Ziggurat.

It's quite a lot, isn't it? Indeed, Metropolis bites off a lot for its average 107 minute running time, and it never has a second to not talk with its mouth full. The faults of Metropolis and the reasons why it never caught on enough for the whole world to be aware of it are all located in the narrative, which is very dry despite the always impressive ambition and its attempt at a Shakespearean-esque tragic epic in scale. The story is in a bad spot of both recycling themes through its homages and not portraying them in any stronger or new ways beyond aesthetic, and even the fresh aesthetic is more of a hybrid of different sources rather than something truly unique. Most importantly though is that the story lacks any sort of a strong immediate hook. There are no great characters to get attached to other than the clearly complex Rock (who himself has little background or development like everyone else), and though this has the potential to be forgiven as individuals getting lost in a much larger story about a society, the city of Metropolis that is, the city's culture before the turmoil is barely established in order to service the plot and its downfall is sudden, not as natural as it should be, and not that cathartic. The characters being uninteresting is a serious blow to a what progresses as a detective story, as the background of the setting itself also takes the entire movie to unfold, so the full significance of what's happening isn't felt. This leads to the viewer being dragged through set pieces that are weak in important context.

Metropolis hopes for its story to succeed based on sheer size, and hopes that the powerful art direction will compensate for the story and characters' lack of width. This is a successful gamble when it comes to being pure entertainment as there's not a second when Metropolis isn't visually engrossing, but as Fritz Lang would put it, style is the mediator of the brain and the heart. These disparate qualities of Metropolis should work together in tandem rather than be a series of pretty patches. Though Metropolis is a very frustrating film as its faults are practically pronounced alongside its great potential of what it wants to achieve, it still manages to cement a place in pop culture regardless. Why? Because Metropolis is far from a film that can be faulted for lack of trying. It's a gorgeous feature that never completely loses sight of its grand ambitions, and its excitement and the love put into it is perfectly palpable with or without its shortcomings. If certain other anime films can become renowned as classics for similarly "traditional" themes on the basis of affecting art direction, then so should Metropolis. It's a movie that should be mentioned to anyone with an interest in animation, and given how rarely a film comes along that tries to top it in that aspect, it'll probably remain a stand-out animated film into the next generation or further.

Upon wondering around for a good anime movie, I found myself instantly wondering what is Metropolis? I watched it in the worst quality on a anime movie website and I couldn't even see the faces. But, I can tell you I thought it was wonderfully created. The Music really drew me in with the 1920's feel and I loved that it almost borders on steampunk. I loved all the characters because, they really all had a large purpose. The story was well crafted and easily depicts a realistic sci-fi movie.
Usually, I tend to drift away from anime movies that are not 2006 and up ... but, for 2001 it was genius and almost completely futuristic. I had heard of this movie before but, I never watched it until recently. I think that if you're looking for a movie that will keep you guessing and will maybe make you cry than I suggest this one :)

Okiura is such a great animator, it irks me his talent got wasted on this piss poor script. Not only is the plot a bloody wreck, the thematic exploration is nothing short of contradictory. It sets up sides, it frames them accordingly, but at some point it just fucks it up and things become very confusing. There are few things more frustrating than seeing a build up to a statement just so it can fall apart and leave you totally underwhelmed. It almost feels like they had no idea what they were doing. I couldn't bring myself to finish the original manga cause Tezuka isn't ... exactly my cup of tea, but regardless of how bad the content gets, there is no excuse. Otomo is a great artist but a sucky writer, which makes putting names like Hamasaki, Kanada, and Rintaro to work under his pathetic screenplay even more of an embarrassment. I kid you not, the number of great people working on this genuinely saddens me for what it turned out to be. Even the animation itself kinda got too heavy for me after a while, so I ended up getting more impressed by its amazing structural complexity, with awesome attention to detail and colors. Metropolis could have been steampunk Ghost in the Shell, but lacked the actual substance that makes for a timeless masterpiece.