Detective Shunsaku Ban, along with his nephew Kenichi, goes off to the
magnificent city of Metropolis in order to arrest the mad scientist Dr.
Laughton.
Unknown to the two, Dr. Laughton had been developing a super android named
Tima for Metropolis' resident big shot Red Duke. Tima was created in the image
of Red Duke's dead daughter.
Red Duke plans to gain control of the whole world by making Tima sit atop the
Ziggurat, a throne of power he had prepared.
However, Red Duke's insanely jealous adopted son Rock murders Dr. Laughton and
destroys the lab before Tima can be activated.
Fortunately, Kenichi arrives at the scene in time to save Tima... but Rock
soon finds out that Tima survived, and the chase is on!
Metropolis Anime Review
Metropolis movie anime is something of a slow-starter. Despite the fact that I was totally blown away by the impressive visuals from
the beginning, I had a difficult time getting through the first ten minutes or
so.
There was a lot of political talk regarding robot labor and what-not, all of
which I found to be very boring.
The pace and the story picks up after the murder of Dr. Laughton. Tima awakens and is saved by Kenichi, Rock finds out and wastes no time in
trying to kill them every step of the way.
The chase spans Metropolis anime' colorful city streets as well as the dark, dank
sewers underneath.
Tima and Kenichi are given ample opportunities to bond and develop feelings
for each other while on the run, and yet even so I could not feel for them as
much as I was supposed to. I believe this can be attributed to the fact that character development was
lacking for most part.
Among all the characters, I felt the most for Pero and Fifi, both of who are
robots who don't get too much screentime.
Pero is hired by Shunsaku and Kenichi to accompany them around the city, and
Fifi helps Tima and Kenichi get away from Rock.
The only human character I found interesting enough to feel anything for was
Rock. Evil bastard that he is, he gave me the impression that he grew up with all
the wrong values and I could actually understand what propelled him.
All the others seemed to be there just to move the plot along -- Kenichi is
there to help Tima evade her pursuers for a time, Shunsaku serendipitously
appears to save whoever needs to be saved, etc.
The audio-visual aspect is where this movie truly shines. I was awestruck by
the superbly rendered 3D backdrops -- from the sprawling cityscape to the
insides of the Ziggurat.
More remarkable was the fact that the two-dimensional characters manage to
blend in flawlessly with the whole scenario.
Watching Metropolis 2001 in full DTS mode entreated me to a stunning earful as
well. The music, as well as the sound effects and dialogues, were so crisp and clear
that it was like I was in the middle of Metropolis myself.
I almost had shivers when they started playing the 50's hit
"I Can't Stop Loving You" amidst the destruction and havoc in the last
part, it was sheer irony and yet the song depicted the prevailing sentiments
perfectly. The English dubbing is nicely done as well.
Metropolis is altogether a good film, but as I've mentioned earlier, the
characters seemed to exist solely for the story's convenience and I found it
difficult to like them.
There was just something missing, something that holds me back from extolling
its greatness. It was well worth watching though and I don't regret picking it
up.
Miscellanies: Metropolis
Columbia Tri-Star's R3 Metropolis DVD release is identical to the R1 DVD release.
Metropolis | |
| Genre | Adventure, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 1 |
| Status | Finished Airing |
| Aired | May 26, 2001 |
| Producers | Bandai Visual, Dentsu, Kadokawa Shoten, Imagica, Tezuka Productions, Toho, King Records |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Rating | PG-13 - Teens 13 or older |
| Themes | Detective |
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