Metropolis

Lang's Metropolis is rightly considered a legend and a milestone in film history, despite its age and lack of spoken dialogue. However, I have a significant problem with this Japanese piece, which is based on its story. The manga-style animation is a problem for me. When watching the beautiful children's faces adorned with huge eyes, I feel an unpleasant sense of infantility. Furthermore, there are trivial dialogues and an overall childish perspective on problems that should appeal to a mature audience. The characters are completely underdeveloped and lack any charisma. The only thing that can be praised about the film is the music and the background drawings, which effectively capture the motifs of futuristic industrialization. However, even that didn't save me from feeling intense boredom, as I had to exert enormous energy to overcome having micro naps. Anime is truly not for me, with a few exceptions by Miyazaki. Overall impression: 25%. (01/01/2012)