Let me go ahead and start this one off by saying I'm a fan of Metallica. Yes, even when Jason Newstead took over as bassist and the band "sold out" with the Black Album. And, yes, even further on into the present, where they're apparently a bunch of talentless, money-grubbing assholes if the internet is to be believed. I've listened to every Metallica album to date and found at least one song on every album I could enjoy - minus St. Anger and Lulu (sorry, guys, can't win 'em all). I'm also not a music critic, I'm just a big fan of the band. However, that doesn't mean I'm willing to follow them blindly and not point out when a short coming (the aforementioned two albums ought to prove that) is reached. Case in point, and I already know that I'm not going to win any friends for saying it, Metallica Through the Never.
Written by the band and director Nimród Antal, this film is absolutely just...weird. Touted as a "thriller concert film", I can go ahead and tell everybody that the concert parts of the film are awesome, taken from a show in Vancouver, where the narrative of the film is also set. Having actually been to a Metallica concert, I can tell you that it's a pretty good performance. The band has high energy and they get the crowd into it as well, though not to the level of - say - Iron Maiden (also seen them in concert). Where the film suffers is in the narrative that the band and Antal are trying to bring to the screen. And, with that, let's begin.
And begin we do with the introduction of "Trip" (Dane DeHaan), one of the roadies (so named, I'm guessing, for a scene where he's skateboarding and wipes out onto the asphalt), arriving and getting cameos from the band before he gets an assignment from a manager to find a van stranded without gas that apparently was carrying something very important. Before heading out, Trip decides to take a strange blue and red pill...and then things quickly go off the rails and firmly stay there.
Oh, and before you ask about the item on the van, we never find out exactly what it is. Spoiler alert.
What follows is ninety-four minutes of trippy visuals set to, and interwoven with, the music of Metallica. When it focuses on the concert, it's great! When it's focused back on the psychedelic journey of Trip, however, it's jarring, incoherent, and poses enough questions to have been written by J.J. Abrams...only for the disappointment of the un-reveals to happen several seasons early. Trip makes a journey through Vancouver, which quickly turns more and more post-apocalyptic as time progresses, going from a full on riot in the streets, watched over by an enigmatic and frightening being known as Fallout Box Art...I mean, "the Rider". Straddling a mighty steed and wearing a gas mask, he rides through Trip's drug-induced version of Vancouver with a penchant for hanging people. Now, Trip must find a way to avoid the hangman and make his way back to the concert.
Now, the makings of an awesome narrative are here, I won't deny that. But they're bogged down by several problems. One, and probably the biggest of note here, is Trip. Besides the fact that he's a roadie for Metallica, we know absolutely nothing about him. Not his likes or dislikes or anything else that gives us insight into a character's mind. Just throwing someone into a difficult or dangerous position doesn't immediately get us to sympathize and be interested. We can surely empathize with Trip to a certain extent (after all, who wants to be hanged from a lamppost? Nobody, that's who), but as for getting invested? That's not quite enough.
The second problem is the item that Trip is sent to receive from the van. We never find out what it is. At all. Whatever it is, it clearly has some great impact on Trip as he falls against the walls of the van in shock. Shame that doesn't happen for the audience, who never gets to learn what is in the bag he finds there. No, it's more concerned with showing the extensive visuals and glorifying the music of Metallica. And those would be great, but here's my question - why? Why not just focus on making a great concert film or, if you want to go the artsy path, why not focus on the narrative and use the music of Metallica as a way to enhance the experience?
Either way, despite my gripes, apparently a lot of people seem to really enjoy this. It made back its budget, plus a little extra, and was considered a success. If you're a fan of the band and you're in for the music, enjoy it. If you're of the artsy crowd and dig the visuals, go nuts. But I don't really think it's that great. The entire film doesn't really make clear what it wants to do or what message its trying to bring across to us. What was in the bag? Was it important? Evidently not, since Trip shows up with it after the show (or possibly before it, the film is rather confusing on that point). But what's more annoying is that the bag that the item is in is prominently featured near the end...and yet we're not even given a hint as to what was within.
Pulp Fiction could get away with that, Metallica. It had characters who were knew about and were invested in the story. While the mystery of what was in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase is one that is debated to this very day, that wasn't Quentin Taratino's point in making the film. He didn't put so much emphasis on such a thing that we were insulted that we didn't get an answer - because there were interesting characters and scenarios that had more focus put on them. Here, in Through the Never, we have a character we don't really care about doing things that are better suited to a dark and gritty reboot version of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and it just doesn't come across the same way. It's not bad, per se, but it really should have had the focus refined more.
Metallica Through the Never is now available from Blackened Records and Picturehouse.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin
Written by the band and director Nimród Antal, this film is absolutely just...weird. Touted as a "thriller concert film", I can go ahead and tell everybody that the concert parts of the film are awesome, taken from a show in Vancouver, where the narrative of the film is also set. Having actually been to a Metallica concert, I can tell you that it's a pretty good performance. The band has high energy and they get the crowd into it as well, though not to the level of - say - Iron Maiden (also seen them in concert). Where the film suffers is in the narrative that the band and Antal are trying to bring to the screen. And, with that, let's begin.
And begin we do with the introduction of "Trip" (Dane DeHaan), one of the roadies (so named, I'm guessing, for a scene where he's skateboarding and wipes out onto the asphalt), arriving and getting cameos from the band before he gets an assignment from a manager to find a van stranded without gas that apparently was carrying something very important. Before heading out, Trip decides to take a strange blue and red pill...and then things quickly go off the rails and firmly stay there.
Oh, and before you ask about the item on the van, we never find out exactly what it is. Spoiler alert.
What follows is ninety-four minutes of trippy visuals set to, and interwoven with, the music of Metallica. When it focuses on the concert, it's great! When it's focused back on the psychedelic journey of Trip, however, it's jarring, incoherent, and poses enough questions to have been written by J.J. Abrams...only for the disappointment of the un-reveals to happen several seasons early. Trip makes a journey through Vancouver, which quickly turns more and more post-apocalyptic as time progresses, going from a full on riot in the streets, watched over by an enigmatic and frightening being known as Fallout Box Art...I mean, "the Rider". Straddling a mighty steed and wearing a gas mask, he rides through Trip's drug-induced version of Vancouver with a penchant for hanging people. Now, Trip must find a way to avoid the hangman and make his way back to the concert.
Now, the makings of an awesome narrative are here, I won't deny that. But they're bogged down by several problems. One, and probably the biggest of note here, is Trip. Besides the fact that he's a roadie for Metallica, we know absolutely nothing about him. Not his likes or dislikes or anything else that gives us insight into a character's mind. Just throwing someone into a difficult or dangerous position doesn't immediately get us to sympathize and be interested. We can surely empathize with Trip to a certain extent (after all, who wants to be hanged from a lamppost? Nobody, that's who), but as for getting invested? That's not quite enough.
The second problem is the item that Trip is sent to receive from the van. We never find out what it is. At all. Whatever it is, it clearly has some great impact on Trip as he falls against the walls of the van in shock. Shame that doesn't happen for the audience, who never gets to learn what is in the bag he finds there. No, it's more concerned with showing the extensive visuals and glorifying the music of Metallica. And those would be great, but here's my question - why? Why not just focus on making a great concert film or, if you want to go the artsy path, why not focus on the narrative and use the music of Metallica as a way to enhance the experience?
Either way, despite my gripes, apparently a lot of people seem to really enjoy this. It made back its budget, plus a little extra, and was considered a success. If you're a fan of the band and you're in for the music, enjoy it. If you're of the artsy crowd and dig the visuals, go nuts. But I don't really think it's that great. The entire film doesn't really make clear what it wants to do or what message its trying to bring across to us. What was in the bag? Was it important? Evidently not, since Trip shows up with it after the show (or possibly before it, the film is rather confusing on that point). But what's more annoying is that the bag that the item is in is prominently featured near the end...and yet we're not even given a hint as to what was within.
Pulp Fiction could get away with that, Metallica. It had characters who were knew about and were invested in the story. While the mystery of what was in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase is one that is debated to this very day, that wasn't Quentin Taratino's point in making the film. He didn't put so much emphasis on such a thing that we were insulted that we didn't get an answer - because there were interesting characters and scenarios that had more focus put on them. Here, in Through the Never, we have a character we don't really care about doing things that are better suited to a dark and gritty reboot version of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and it just doesn't come across the same way. It's not bad, per se, but it really should have had the focus refined more.
Metallica Through the Never is now available from Blackened Records and Picturehouse.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin
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