"metropolis" movie review

[rmd]

So, there's been a spate of "faux-vintage" movies over the past few years. "alien attack" was a remake/spoof 50's sf movie. The hp lovecraft historical folks did a silent "call of Cthulhu" movie. There's a new one, now. It's called "metropolis", and the framing conceit is laid out in title cards before the start of the movie (like the beginning of "Blair witch project") explaining how the parts of the movie were scattered across the globe like part of some videogame quest (I assume the inevitable tie in game will utilize this mechanism somehow).

Anyways, they supposedly gathered all the parts to create voltron and are claiming to be showing the full movie for the first time since 1920 or something. It done like a 20's style silent movie, and it was pretty good, albiet kinda derivative.

How derivative? Here's a list:

• there's the whole "we found this movie" thing like Blair witch
• the art design for the titular city is a TOTAL ripoff of Rapture from Bioshock. And rapture had whales and awesome water fx and everything.
• these guys owe Quentin Tarantino a check or something: not only did they do the fake distressing thing like in grindhouse, they even used the thing where they cut out part of the movie and have a "we're missing this footage" title card
• the people fleeing the rising water level end up finding a locked door at the top of the escape stairs, just like Kate and Leo in "titanic"

They did a lot of stuff right, though. They absolutely nailed the look for the fx. I think actual fx in the supposed production time frame weren't that advanced, but it's a small jump to what they showed. The cgi was so well blended I couldn't be sure what was cgi and what was vintage fx methods. (the call of Cthulhu folks did this really well, too.)

The acting had real period versimilitude right down to the makeup. The plot was pretty good, working the archetypes well.

So, it could totally pass for a 20's movie. Really good. I didn't recognize any of the actors, so they found really good unknown talent. Or maybe they are all germans who haven't done anything English speaking until now.

Anyways, check it out if you like that deco styling. Very nice.

Comments

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

Haha, I fell for your post. I'm sicker than I thought!

[lionsburg.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, WETA was used to do motion capture on Grade B German actors -- The movie is entirely CGI.

Some of the scenery was reused from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow due to budget cuts.

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

So - not colorized by hand by Ted Turner, and not with a sountrack by Giorgio Moroder and Pat Benatar?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I have a vague affection for that version. It's a freaky 80s period piece.

Metropolis

[galestorm.livejournal.com]

Actually, it really is a silent film from the very period they claim. Not only that, they really did find the footage that had been missing for a loooong time, stowed in someone's film files. (Not at all an MST3K kinda thing!)

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. *grin*

Re: Metropolis

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Indeed. And my god, the restoration is fabulous. I have watched different versions over the years and up until the 2000-ish restoration figured, well, it was a new media, and while it was clearly a leap forward in the context of its time, I guess they hadn't learned that much yet about using film as a media or somethig.

So. Utterly. Wrong.

In it's complete form, there is so much more plot, nuance (modulo the acting style of the time), and story coherence than I had hoped, nevermind expected after years of watching the short cut. It's not quite like seeing "midsummer night's dream if only seen the non faerie parts, but it's still pretty substantial.

As we were watching the credits, I thought of ways it was "derivative" in the same way that guy holst is a total ripoff of John Williams, and I couldn't resist writing a review like that. :)

Oh man, I should've mentioned that Madonna video.

[smeehrrr.livejournal.com]

Good, but minus 20 points for using the word "versimilitude", which this review would never have in it.

[xthread.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...
Metropolis Quest...
Not a bad title...