7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Metropolis is a story of how important emotions are and how they separate humans from everything else. The movie follows a young boy and his uncle (a private investigator). The story is set in the far future where humans and robots live together, unfortunately not in harmony. Many robots are forced underground and are terminated for entering unauthorized areas. They are more or less servants to humankind. The plot starts to unfold when the boy meets a robot named Tima and they get in all kinds of trouble. Never a dull moment when you've got a robot by your side.
Starring: Yuka Imoto, Kei Kobayashi, Koki Okada, Tarō Ishida, Norio WakamotoForeign | 100% |
Anime | 88% |
Sci-Fi | 13% |
Romance | 3% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Japanese: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis remains one of the most iconic films of all time for any number of reasons, but it brings with it a perhaps unstated but still relevant question: “which” Metropolis? By that I mean that, as has been well documented and even preserved in various home media releases, Metropolis has had an almost bewildering number of different versions released in various markets over the course of several decades, and for a long time, it was thought that the “original” version (whatever that might have been) was “lost”. Fans of the film will know that a 16mm reduction negative was ultimately discovered in 2008, something that ultimately led to what was called The Complete ‘Metropolis’ (the link above to the Kino release is of that version), giving fans a chance to see Lang’s original formulation. Almost 25 years earlier, though, one of the “new, improved” (?) versions of the film appeared when famed music producer Giorgio Moroder released Metropolis, a truncated accounting of the film with a (then) contemporary pop score added, with the likes of Freddie Mercury and Pat Benatar providing parts of the song score. Another “alternate” version of Metropolis has, in one way at least, next to nothing to do with Lang’s original film, insofar as Lang’s film is not used in any form for the visual side of things. Instead Lang’s basic premises are presented in an anime form that also adds to and/or subtracts from various elements that were part of the 1927 formulation.
Metropolis is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Metropolis
has had at least a couple of previous DVD releases, and for anyone who has only experienced the film that way, this Blu-ray will provide a noticeable
upgrade, though there are a few issues to mention. The palette is nicely robust throughout the vast bulk of this presentation, though there are
occasional lapses where densities don't look quite as full, and things blanch a bit toward yellows or browns. Grain is fairly heavy throughout the
presentation, and can tend to "roll" in waves through the frame at times, which makes me wonder if this might have been sourced from a secondary
element (Eureka provided no technical data in the press sheet they provided with the release). There are also recurrent if usually minor blemishes,
mostly in
the form of white flecks that perhaps tend to show up so noticeably due to the deeply saturated colors that typically populate the frame.
There's one Member Review already here on this title, and that person mentions "interlacing lines", though I'm frankly not quite sure what that
means.
I saw no signs of stair stepping or combing artifacts (two things I tend to associate with interlaced or even upscaled video), but there are some very
strange anomalies that show up on occasion where what I'd call horizontal "striations" are visible. They come and go and I'm not quite sure what
accounts for them, but they're especially noticeable against brighter backgrounds (there's a very noticeable moment at circa 1:32:37). There is
occasional banding in evidence, and there are some minor
instability issues on some of the rendered material, where line detail can twitch a bit during lateral or vertical pans. The traditional cel animation
can look a bit soft at times, something that can contrast with the more razor sharp looking CGI elements, but there's an appealingly organic
appearance to most of it.
Note: Eureka provided a check disc for purposes of this review, and so while I can't state whether the retail final is the same, this
particular disc was region free and played fine on my Region A equipment.
Metropolis features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options in either English or Japanese. The English surround track is noticeably hotter than the Japanese surround track, but kind of strangely I found Pero in the English language track to be harder to hear, with a soft spoken approach that is at least occasionally slightly buried by effects or score. The film has a glut of great sound effects, including everything from huge explosions to the whir of underground machinery, and the surround channels are consistently engaged. Kind of interestingly, at least given the Morodor revamp of Lang's Metropolis, this film features a kind if Dixieland inflected score, along with some outright jazz standards. In what might be a kind of deliberate sonic call back of sorts, Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" is utilized during a huge destruction scene at the end of the film which may remind some of Kubrick's use of "We'll Meet Again" at the climax of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb . Fidelity is fine throughout, and dynamic range is extremely wide.
- Comparison 1: City View (1080p; 00:41)
- Comparison 2: Wheel Room (1080p; 00:55)
The press sheet Eureka provided with this release may not have included much provenance data, but it did include a little tidbit which caught my eye since it was so overtly provocative. In a trivia section on the press sheet, it's mentioned that original Metropolis manga author Osamu Tezuka wrote and animated a Japanese series called Jangaru Taitei which was then (according to whoever wrote the text on this sheet) "plagiarized by the Disney Company in 1994 and became The Lion King". That may mean that Eureka's legal staff could now be dealing with Disney attorneys (I joke, of course), but in the meantime, the rest of us have a chance to revisit this rather interesting and visually sumptuous "version" of Metropolis. Video encounters a few hurdles, but audio is superb. Recommended.
Collector's Combo-pack / 王立宇宙軍 オネアミスの翼 / Ōritsu Uchūgun: Oneamisu no Tsubasa
1987
Kidô keisatsu patorebâ: The Movie 2 / 機動警察パトレイバー 2 the Movie
1993
Kidō Keisatsu Patoreibā Za Mūbī / 機動警察パトレイバー the Movie
1989
2001
イノセンス / Inosensu
2004
2000-2001
Collector's Edition
2001
2005-2006
2002-2005
1998
Shin Seiki Evangelion Gekijō-ban The End of Evangelion: Air/Magokoro o, Kimi ni
1997
2000
The Early Days Collection
1988-1989
2008-2009
Aim for the Top! Gunbuster | Collector's Edition
1988-1989
10th Anniversary Edition
2006
アキラ / 25th Anniversary
1988
2009
攻殻機動隊 / Kōkaku Kidōtai
1995
1996