Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Heavy Metal 2000 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 21, 2022

'Heavy Metal 2000' is currently only available in a two-film bundle with 'Heavy Metal.' The bundle includes the original film on 4K UHD and 1080p Blu-ray, but this film is presented on 1080p Blu-ray only.

Long ago an ancient alien race known as the Arakacians discovered a secret liquid that, when consumed, granted immortality. The Arakacians used and abused this secret to enslave the galaxy. A successful rebellion destroyed the Arakacian rulership. The liquid's source was placed under lock and key and the key was hidden in the vastness of the universe. Now, the key has been found, and it beckons the ruthless Tyler (voiced by Michael Ironside) who desperately searches for the place the key opens. His journey leads him to Eden, where he slaughters many innocents, secures the liquid for himself, and kidnaps a local girl named Kerry (voiced by Sonja Ball). Now, Kerrie's sister Julie (voiced by Julie Strain) seeks revenge but finds in Tyler a formidable opponent who cannot be killed, setting in motions a violent and deprived journey for freedom and revenge with the fate of the galaxy once again at stake.

Heavy Metal 2000 is nothing like the original film. Rather than a collected volume of short, animated films, here is a single film, running just under 90 minutes, that tells a continuous story from start to finish. The structure may be jarring for anyone expecting another anthology, and that the film just isn't good enough to fill out 90 minutes makes this creative choice all the more disappointing. One can easily see where plenty of fat could have been trimmed to cut this down to a 25- or 30-miute short as a headliner for a new anthology, surrounded by new content, but as it is the main story tends to drag beyond some interspersed moments of higher engagement when the action kicks in or the story finds its few fleeting moments of dramatic interest.

However, Heavy Metal 2000 is very much like the original film, and the comics on which the films are based, in that it's a full-on adult animation packed with grisly violence, sex, and nudity. Gunplay results in horrific wounds. It is not uncommon for characters to have holes blasted in their heads, for their intestines to be spilled to the ground, and so on. Gratuitous sex and nudity abound as well, and for fans of legendary nude model and actress Julie Strain, and the film strives to display her animated form as every bit the recreation of her real-life physique. The film is relentless in its embrace of sex, violence, and language; it's blended into a Sci-Fi setting and story ultimately has little of value to say in terms of social commentary or even dramatic interest, a far cry from the substantial stories from the original film.

The film's technical merits are fine but don't feel evolutionary. Perhaps they do not need to be and remaining grounded in the physical stylings of its predecessor, and the comics, allows for a sense of continuity with the material-at-large. The visual designs are a bit on the boring side; the universe in which the film plays out is drab and nondescript despite the array of various planet surfaces, seedy cities, and starship interiors. There's nothing here that is all that pleasurable to look at. The voice work is fine; the film misses the legendary star-studded cast from the original film but the work here is solid enough, with Strain offering an appropriate blend of tough and sexy while Ironside does what he does best: bring a menacing voice to a seriously unstable and, it seems unstoppable, villain.

Heavy Metal 2000 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony brings Heavy Metal 2000 to Blu-ray with a solid enough 1080p transfer. As noted earlier the locations and characters are drab by design; there's simply not much in the way of visual excitement on display. Colors are not very vivid, but with some exceptions, such as orange fireballs, some red blood, neon signage, and the like, but even these elements rarely offer the sort of intense, vivid pop found in other animated titles. Much of the rest of the content is very bleak and visually depressing; the colors seem fine within the stylistic choices and narrative context, but this is not what anyone would even consider labeling as "eye-popping." The image's overall clarity and detail are fine. The picture holds to a light grain structure that accentuates the film source. Lines are generally true and the inherent detail in both motion character models and static backgrounds reaches an acceptable level of definition and stability. Some aliasing can be seen here and there, notably on a starship exterior seen in the film's opening moments. Banding and other such issues are kept firmly in check.

Heavy Metal 2000 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony has included the standard encode DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is very good, offering plenty of stage engagement, clarity, and low-end extension. Spaceships rumble and maneuver about, gunfire cracks and zips through the listening area with appropriate ferocity (and tears into flesh with believably squishy effects), explosions pack a wallop, and so on and so forth; the track certainly has its action and bass support elements in good working order. Music is likewise well spaced and well supported at the bottom as well. Information is heavy in the backs but not so heavy as to dominate the fronts. Dialogue is clear and center focused for the duration. It is also well prioritized.

Heavy Metal 2000 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Heavy Metal 2000 contains four featurettes. Again, at time of writing, it is exclusive to the above-linked Heavy Metal UHD SteelBook. In that set, a unique digital copy code for this film is included with purchase.

• Julie Strain: Super Goddess (480i, 4x3, 13:16): A look at the 6'1" Amazonian sex symbol, "the Queen of the B-Movies" whose career has spanned a wide range of characters and film types. It also looks at her role models, embracing her nude modeling career and how it propelled her acting career, her Andy Sidaris films, her fans, life off the camera, her marriage to Kevin Eastman, photography career, and more.
• Voice Talent (480i, 4x3, 3:43): Exploring Julie Strain's, Billy Idol's, and Michael Ironside's voice work in the film.
• Animation Tests (480i, 4x3, 1:17): Kevin Eastman narrates a short look at some early animatics, focusing more on their purpose than the scenes playing out.
• Animatic Comparisons (480i, 4x3, 11:29 total runtime): Storyboards juxtaposed against the final film version; the former fills much of the screen, the latter a small box bottom-right. Included are Eden Airfight, Lizard Fight, Love Scene, Julie Bathes, and Final Fight

Heavy Metal 2000 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Heavy Metal 2000 is a shell of the original picture. While it holds to the same level of gratuitous sex, nudity, and violence that defined the first film, the single-story arc is not strong enough to hold the runtime; an edited version flanked by three or four more shorts would have been preferable. Voice work is fine, but animation is bland. Sony's Blu-ray includes solid video, excellent audio, and few vintage supplements. For fans only (assuming it ever receives an individual release).