Metropolis

[Ichigo_89]

Please post if you have seen this. We got to get the word out! This is a very exceptional Anime film that everything should watch. The animation is breath-taking, the story is very exciting and characters are engaging. Positively AWESOME! Alot of people are shot by this one dude, but no blood is shown. Onyl 2 swears in the whole movie. It's one of the mellowist PG-13 films you'll ever see. Maybe I'm overreacting a little bit because this is the first theatrical Anime movie I've ever seen, but still. This is GOOD STUFF!

[Lengai]

I've seen most of if. But..*prepares herself to dodge flying objects*..I couldn't get into it. It didn't hold my intrest too long, I'm sad to say. I would like to view it again in a more..aware state than I was.

[Mangafanatic]

What's it about? (Is there any nudity?) I know I've seen the cover, but for some reason it reminds me of pac-man. Atleast, if I'm thinking of the right thing. . .

[Yojimbo]

I've heard it was pretty good. And I don't believe there is any nudity.

[SwordSkill]

It's a cyber/steampunk movie influenced a lot by Lang's original Metropolis and the movie Blade Runner...it's about a relationship between a human boy and an android girl caught in the tension between organics and non-organics. The last part was a real, evocative tearjerker; beautiful way of pulling it off. I loved the choice of music for the explosion scene (Ray Charles's "I Can't Stop Loving You") which made it doubly moving, and the over-all BGM was kinda of 1950's, with a lot of jazz, which I found very appropriate for the atmosphere. The character art were modeled after Osamu Tezuka's style, the godfather of manga and the creator of Astroboy, since the idea was originally his, so the characters do look old-school, but the backgrounds were simpy gorgeous.

[Ichigo_89]

It's old school mixed with new school animation. Which looks stunning! Yah, that explosion scene was SO great. There couldn't have been a better song choice for it! For the whole duration of the explosion my jaw was literally dropped and I was like".......whoa......" You guys would laugh if you'd see some of my reactions to amazing anime climaxes. But anyways, Bestbuy is having a 20% off sale until tomorrow! You can get Metropolis for as low as $16! but my local store was 5 bucks extra, bu SO WHAT?! This is prolly the best anime I've ever purchased or seen, EVER! I highly recommend it. It has alot of elements in it: action, adventure, suspense, even elements of shoujo. I really regret missing with film when it was out at my local theater, but now I have the DVD to watch over and over!

[mai]

I've seen it 5 times It’s one of my favorites.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

It's one of my faves as well, though it's also the first non Pokemon or Digimon anime I ever saw in theaters as well. (so there is a bit of favoretism) I was really facinated with all historical/mythological symbolism (though saying that the Tower of Babel was destroyed by "the Gods" was a little silly) I really think that this Metropolis is better that Fritz Lang's original, which is severely lacking in the character department.

For the record, the PG-13 is for "sceens of destruction;" they worried the whole destruction of the ziggaraut (sp?) would be disturbing so soon after 9/11

[Ichigo_89]

Yah, it really could've been a (to the limit) PG movie. It really wasn't that bad. BTW, no nudity at all besides tima, but it was very brief and light was completely blocking out anything.

[KazuValis]

What's it about? (Is there any nudity?) I know I've seen the cover, but for some reason it reminds me of pac-man. Atleast, if I'm thinking of the right thing. . .

No, there is no nudity. Not that I remember, anyway. I believe it's PG-13 mostly for its intensity, for it does not have a whole lot of offensive material.

Oh, and the "big band"-style BG music was awesome! I'm more of a rock guy, but I really enjoyed it. The whole movie in itself was pretty great. A little long, though, although I believe it was worth the wait!

[Bobtheduck]

I think there may have been brief nudity in the original, but that very small shot was taken out in the american version. I'm not sure, though.

Metropolis is great. People always complain that its plagiarism of the movie from the 20's... I have never seen said movie, so i can't comment. I have also never read the manga... It is common practice for foreign stories to become manga, so I don't think it was as much plagiarism as it was an adaptation. I need to see the original, and the manga, to see how they all compare...

[Pantakrator]

Ooh!!! I love this movie. My brother HATES anime, but he actually likes this movie... Everybody should at least watch it once. *In Ducky's voice* Yep, yep!!!

[shooraijin]

I saw it for rental at the local Blockbuster. I might pick it up. ^^

[Pantakrator]

Pick it up! Pick it up!!!

[Mangafanatic]

Yeah, it's in my blockbuster too. That's why I was curious.

[CreatureArt]

I saw this movie very recently (I actually managed to find some anime in NZ! Shock horror! )

I really enjoyed it. It really got to me - in a good way. I'm intending to use it as part of my English assignment (:thumb:). The liked seeing such a different style of anime - it reminds me a lot of the original Mickey Mouse.

[freerock1]

I guess I'm kind of the opposite of Lengai. It was late when I watched most of it (I actually had to finish in a 2nd sitting), but I liked it. The climax was ingenious. Downsides were that it did seem to drag on a bit at times, plus the thing of "the gods," though I felt like that was probably more of a translation issue than really embracing polytheism.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I thought the movie was really good! At first the Astro Boy like character styles didn't fit well with me in a movie of that seriousness but I thought it was very well done and conveyed that man shouldn't mess around and try to create. It had many similarities to Metropolis (1927) but it was also quite different.

[CreatureArt]

I've only seen a few minutes or so of the original 1920s Metropolis in Media Studies class, so they only similarities I noticed were the existance of an underground, poverty-stricken and worked to the death underclass contrasting to a rich, happy ruling class, as well as the abundance of machinery.

What similarities did you notice, Warrior, if you don't mind me asking? I'm doing a research assessment on the film so anything you notice I could put into my final report.

I was like you, Freerock - I finished it in two sittings as well and enjoyed it. ^_^

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Sure thing. It was set in a world reminiscent of the 20's, there were mad scientist like characters in both. In Metropolis (1927) Dr Strangelove means to create a woman in his deadlover's likeness, in Metropolis (the anime) the scientist is commissioned to create a girl in the Baron's dead daughters likeness. Both societies are dystopian in effect.
Its been some time since I've seen either. Sorry, that's all I remember.

But these two links would make good resources:

1927 version
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%281927_movie%29

Anime version
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%282001_movie%29

Good luck with your research assignment CreatureArt! I'm presuming its for Media Studies? God Bless and I hope this helps a little!

[CreatureArt]

Thanks heaps, W4J! That really, really helps my assessment. Especially where the machines made in a dead daughter's likeness is involved! I'll check out those links, too. ^_^ Thanks again - this is going to improve my report a lot!

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Glad to be of service ma'am!

[Alice]

I saw it! Just last night.

My brother warned me about the sad ending ahead of time so I was prepared and still enjoyed it.

I really liked the music "I can't stop loving you," played at that scene near the end. It added a lot of power to the scene. In some ways it fit perfectly; in others it was too upbeat, so it made a surprising, catch-your-attention music choice.

[bigsleepj]

I haven't seen either Metropolis, the silent movie nor the anime, but both are on my list. I have read somewhere that Osamu Tezuka never saw the movie until after he wrote the manga - he was not inspired by the movie itself but of a poster of the movie.

[CreatureArt]

[quote="Alice"]I really liked the music "I can't stop loving you," played at that scene near the end. It added a lot of power to the scene. In some ways it fit perfectly]

Same here. Initially I thought that this music was terrible; it ruined the moment - but after a few seconds it had the opposite effect on me. It just made it seem more poignant(sp?).

I'm glad they're on your list to watch, Bigsleep. The few minutes I saw of the original didn't really capture me much (I'm a big fan of dialogue in sound and I didn't see enough to gather much of the story) but I'm sure if I had seen it from the beginning and watched it through I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

[bigsleepj]

[quote="CreatureArt"]I'm glad they're on your list to watch, Bigsleep. The few minutes I saw of the original didn't really capture me much (I'm a big fan of dialogue in sound ]

Sound effects and dialogue is overated. It can be distracting and overbearing if done badly. If a movie is mostly visual then it doesn't need a lot of dialogue (notice how most reviews of "Revenge of the Sith" complain about the dialogue). If the dialogue is done well then its a blessing, but most of the time it just leads to frustration. Cinema's best asset is the fact that its visual and that is why silent movies are still great because they did not get distracted with the need for one-liners.

And yes, I love silent movies.

All Hail Buster Keaton!!!!

[CreatureArt]

Cool picture, Bigsleep.

That's a good point. I've never thought about it before, but at times dialogue can just really get in the way of a good plot. I still like it (when its done well) but I don't think I've had enough exposure to silent movies to appreciate them.

[Alice]

About the anime...

I liked the way Rock was played. He was obviousy a bad dude, but they showed his motivation in a way that made him seem almost realistic, I thought.

About the other stuff:

Buster is teh man.

Just to clarify, this is the original Metropolis you guys were talking about?

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

We were talking about the anime by the same name but that is the original, yes.

[bigsleepj]

:lol: Cool picture, Bigsleep.

The picture is from Buster Keaton's classic "The General" which is easily one of my favourite movies, silent of otherwise. The movie is about a train-engineer in the US Civil war whose girlfriend and favourite engine gets kidnapped in one go by the enemy and then pursues them first by foot, pushcar then bicycle and finaly by another locomotive. The enemy uncouple cars and drop railway sleepers onto the track and Buster uses his ingenuity to keep the train on track. When he does get his girlfriend and train back he must drive while the enemy pursues. Although the movie wasn't the most expensive silent movie ever made (that honour goes to Metropolis) it did contain the single most expensive shot in silent movie history - the shot of a train running over a burning train bridge which collapses with the train falling into the water below while army troops climb down the sides of the river bank. Although this is an epic comedy and a great movie, if you want to start delving into silent movies you'll have to start at other movies.

Buster Keaton is also one of my favourite actors / directors, known for three things (a) he did his own stunts, some of them very dangerous (b) he used props and sets in the movie itself to create the jokes & comic situations and (c) he had a terrific deadpan face. And here's an interesting fact: Jackie Chan considers Buster Keaton his hero. Their style of humour is very similar, except Chan added martial arts to the mix and doesn't use a deadpan face. But still there are many references to Buster Keaton and silent movies throughout Jackie Chans movies, especially his Hong Kong movies which are his best.

That's a good point. I've never thought about it before, but at times dialogue can just really get in the way of a good plot. I still like it (when its done well) but I don't think I've had enough exposure to silent movies to appreciate them.

Well, silent movies, like classical literature, should not be compared with its modern predecesors. Sound movies isn't superior to silent movies - its like comparing apples and cabbages. Both are great in their way - but to just dislike movies for not having sound is like saying you don't want to read a certain book because it has no pictures.