Heavy Metal
There are many genres in film ranging from drama to family friendly. Within these genres are sub-genres and sometimes multiple genres are present in one film. One of the least talked about genres is animation. Some film scholars and critics see animation as a lesser art form and will dislike a film because of it. This upsets me as I love animation (when it's well done) especially anime. One of the vastly underrated classics of animation is Heavy Metal. Let me preface this by saying that Heavy Metal is NOT meant for children. This film is meant for older teens and adults. This is a hard R and might possibly be an NC-17. Heavy Metal falls in a category of animated films that include Fire and Ice and the entirety of Ralph Bakshi's work. It's a category that most people don't realize even exists. There are animated films that are not for young children. Some anime and non-hard R films fall into this category as well (Princess Mononoke and The Secret of NIMH to start.) I remember seeing a woman bring her toddler in to Paranorman and I wasn't surprised when he started to cry at the end with all of the scary stuff happening. Trailers exist for a reason.
Heavy Metal started off as an anthology magazine with different authors/artists having their stories published. The movie follows that formula as well. There is an overarching story of a glowing green orb of evil telling these tales to a girl in a farmhouse. This is not the opening of the film. The film opens with a classic car being dropped out of a space shuttle in order to enter Earth's atmosphere. And yes, there is an astronaut driving while rock music plays. If it hasn't been made clear by now, this movie is completely bonkers.
The best part of Heavy Metal is the sequence with the B-52 bomber over the Pacific. That could have been a film on its own. It is frakking creepy and unnerving. The one extremely effective part is after the co-pilot has gone to the other end of the plane and seen that everyone, besides him and the pilot, is dead. A jump scare occurs then, he goes back to the cockpit and... the bodies are gone. It's one of those scenes that could easily go unnoticed and does get overshadowed by the rest of the sequence but, it is incredibly effective at setting up what's about to happen.
I was able to see a screening of Heavy Metal a couple of weeks ago at The New Beverly in Los Angeles. I know I've mentioned this before but, the best part about this theatre is that concessions here aren't ridiculously expensive. A large soda is $3. Let that sink in for a moment. The downside is that the slope of the theatre floor is rather shallow and I seem to consistently have tall/large men sit in front of me. This wouldn't normally be a problem except I then have to sit on my leg so I can see the screen unobstructed. That didn't happen for Heavy Metal and I was so damn happy. There were probably ten open seats in the whole place and two of them were right in front of me. A good night indeed.
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Heavy Metal started off as an anthology magazine with different authors/artists having their stories published. The movie follows that formula as well. There is an overarching story of a glowing green orb of evil telling these tales to a girl in a farmhouse. This is not the opening of the film. The film opens with a classic car being dropped out of a space shuttle in order to enter Earth's atmosphere. And yes, there is an astronaut driving while rock music plays. If it hasn't been made clear by now, this movie is completely bonkers.
The best part of Heavy Metal is the sequence with the B-52 bomber over the Pacific. That could have been a film on its own. It is frakking creepy and unnerving. The one extremely effective part is after the co-pilot has gone to the other end of the plane and seen that everyone, besides him and the pilot, is dead. A jump scare occurs then, he goes back to the cockpit and... the bodies are gone. It's one of those scenes that could easily go unnoticed and does get overshadowed by the rest of the sequence but, it is incredibly effective at setting up what's about to happen.
I was able to see a screening of Heavy Metal a couple of weeks ago at The New Beverly in Los Angeles. I know I've mentioned this before but, the best part about this theatre is that concessions here aren't ridiculously expensive. A large soda is $3. Let that sink in for a moment. The downside is that the slope of the theatre floor is rather shallow and I seem to consistently have tall/large men sit in front of me. This wouldn't normally be a problem except I then have to sit on my leg so I can see the screen unobstructed. That didn't happen for Heavy Metal and I was so damn happy. There were probably ten open seats in the whole place and two of them were right in front of me. A good night indeed.
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
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