Anyonbe see Metropolis?

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Postby The HentaiMaster » Mon Oct 28, 2002 4:23 pm

AbsoluteDestiny wrote:When you write out the plot of the movie it actually sounds really interesting.


[spoilers]


A city corrupted by its own development creates a huge towering weapon as a show of domination and force, and throws celebrations to gain public acceptance and confidence. Duke Red gains military muscle in the captial and works his way up towards a coup-de-tat over a weak naive leader and asks a scientist to create the most advanced robot mankind has seen in the image of his lost daughter in order to sit on the throne of power on the tower.

The robot is lost when the jealous duke's son tries to destroy it and is befriended by a young boy who was looking for the robot's creator. The robot learns about being human.

The robot is discovered by the duke and seized. A massive rebellion ensues from the working classes, Duke Red takes over and the robot who had become humane is damaged in an attack by the jealous Duke's stepson goes out of control destroying the tower.


It's not a bad story when you think about it but it really wasn't very well played out, in my opinon. It has the elements of an excellent film but was short of its full potential.


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Postby Rini210 » Mon Oct 28, 2002 10:55 pm

I just rented it a few days ago. I thought it was good, but I thought it would have been drawn more of the anime style you see all the time (the people looked more 'western' drawn, and not as 'anime-ish' ... er, I hope you understand what I mean...)
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Postby fellowhoodlum » Mon Oct 28, 2002 11:01 pm

All I can say is that Otomo has a fetish for blowing up cities. :D
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Postby Tsuji Mania » Tue Oct 29, 2002 2:49 am

Fellow-

Ohtomo didn't create this story. The man who essentially created Japanese animation as we know it today, and he was a pacifist.

Absolute-

First of all you're one of the few people around here who I think has a fully functioning cranium. So I'm curious as to why you don't think this didn't play out well, as you put it. I thought it was pulled off flawlessly, and I'm not one to simply label any Japanese animation released in theaters in the US as classics. Story aside, which I found to be unique and refreshing enough, the sheer amount of work put into this project astounds me.

It is easy to see why anime newbies don't like the piece:

"The storie suked! Gokou wasn't in it!"

"The animation was all stupid!"

"What was the reason for all that crap! What a waste! Just like that Princess Monononoke crap" (the staple extra "no")

But I'm curious as to specifically why you didn't find it appealing. You mentioned you weren't a big Rintaro fan, but even so, this felt more like his Leiji work, which was nothing less than amazing.

Probablly won't get to see your reply for a day or so, but I'll be looking forward to it.
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Postby fellowhoodlum » Tue Oct 29, 2002 4:26 am

Don't get me wrong, I love that movie. :D I also find it amusing that if Tezuka was still around when the movie was made, he'd be a tad displeased with Otomo and Rintaro's rendition of it. Just a tad.

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Postby AbsoluteDestiny » Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:54 am

[More spoilers]




@Tsuji

It's hard to explain - I guess i can say "it didn't really do it for me".

The emotional aspect - with the relationship between Tima and Kenichi, the emotion just wasn't there for me. Again, it's just a feeling of the anime falling short of it's design as I thought the idea of the ending was great but for some reason it didn't trigger any emotion. I know it's cliché but I actually wanted to see evidence of tima regaining some of her former humanity at the end, just before falling to her demise.

The socio/political aspect - I think this was (surprisingly) underplayed to the point that we never really got to know what everyone was fighting for. Duke Red's motivation was unclear (what's so good about controlling the ziggurat anyway?), the rebellion was more of a cliche than a cause and the actual significance of the Ziggurat was enigmatic at best. I'm sure a few details here and there would have solved these problems but I felt like I had to interpolate the details for myself which I don't think is a good thing in this situation.

I think those are the only elements I can fully describe - most of it was just a feeling that for some unknown reason it wasn't working on me.

I can only be astounded at the actual level of animation work put into the movie, and my criticisms are anything but towards its technical acheivements. My objection is to the storyline which despite having all the right setpeices never seemed to spark my excitement.

When the revolution happens I should have some feeling of anticipation, whether it be "oh no, they'll all be killed" or "oh no they are all being deceived, isn't it terrible" or whatever. It just seems to happen without giving us enough attachement to the situtation to form a reaction to it. Simiarly when Tima goes nuts it's almost dissapointing that it's a mechanical problem - there is no conflict of emotion. I personally would have preferred a fight between the humanness of tima versus her design than accidentally having her psycho-robo switch activated as that detaches the emotional significance of the change. We can feel a little pathos as we see Kenichi lose his friend, but even that isn;t really sufficient - they've been apart for so long and she's already gone nuts by the time kenichi wakes up.

I think there's lots of things like this where I wasn't attached to what was going on to really care. I had no feeling for the plight of the people of metropolis (they didn't seem abused or have any real cause to complain about anything), no feeling towards the actions of the duke and little feeling towards Tima's psycho switch being turned on. These are all things that in a well made work would have engaged my interest in some way - maybe even in a significantly moving way if done well. Because it didn't, I can only claim that Metropolis didn't succeed.

Of course it is entirely possible that I'm asking too much and that there's a good reason for everything in the movie being underplayed... if so then I guess it was too subtle for me. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I could have done.
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Postby Tom the Fish » Tue Oct 29, 2002 10:27 am

I really really like Metropolis. I had just seen the original Fritz version just a few days before I had seen the Rintaro one, and I was surprised at how much the cities looked alike.

I feel it was a flawed film because of the under-developed storyline, but only because it had to fit a fifty volume manga into a 120 minute movie. Visually, it was a stunning film. The use of Tezuka's character design over state-of-the-art computer graphic backgrounds was a bit disconcerting, but in the end I grew to love the look. As for the soundtrack, I went out and bought it the next day and listen to it freuqently.

As a sidenote, I have a few cels from the movie, and the materials used for them are some of the most superior that I've owned.

Tom
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Postby OrenTheSaiyan » Tue Oct 29, 2002 3:29 pm

only thing i dont like is some of the character designs..... :x
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Postby Anime Jedi » Tue Oct 29, 2002 6:34 pm

I liked the movie. Liked it enough to buy it. It even came with one of those funny little cd's. Like the ones for GameCube. :D
The ending seemed to lack closure, for myself. But the movie as an entirety was pretty good. The best was the fire fighters! :D
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Postby The HentaiMaster » Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:06 pm

Anime Jedi wrote:I liked the movie. Liked it enough to buy it. It even came with one of those funny little cd's. Like the ones for GameCube. :D
The ending seemed to lack closure, for myself. But the movie as an entirety was pretty good. The best was the fire fighters! :D


DUDE U WAISTED UR MONEY ON A WORTHLESS AND CARPPY MOVIE ( WELL NOT THAT CRAPPY) MAN U PPL HERE ARE RICH
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Postby Hitori » Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:37 pm

I bought it and really liked it as well!

I bought it just to have it as well! Can't beat $14.88+tax!
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Postby CaTaClYsM » Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:38 pm

Not only have I seen it but I am working on an AMV for it as we speak
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Postby The HentaiMaster » Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:39 pm

ur not serius ru !!!!!

why do ppl love this movie so mush ??????? WHY WHY!!!!!!!!
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Postby Hitori » Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:41 pm

I too have been thinking/planning on making a video to it as well!
8)
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Postby The HentaiMaster » Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:41 pm

WHAT IS SO GOOD ABOUT THIS MOVIE ANNY WAY
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