Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
knightchristian
This movie holds such a special place in my heart. Just for it's ambience alone, it's already one of my favorites. The old-timey artstyle, beautiful animation, steampunk aesthetic, and jazz music transports me to a different time and space. It brings about the feeling of "nostalgia for a different time you didn't live through" that most media can't get. The story concepts are fantastic, I just wish the film was a bit longer. The first 40 minutes or so are great but the rest really rushes through the whole revolution, Tima getting kidnapped, and rescuing her in a very short amount of time. The ending still brings me to tears but it all could've been a bit better if it was just 30 or so minutes longer. The themes of love and discrimination are well handled and the characters are endearing. t…
Read at the sourceGravityDaze
2001's metropolis is a cyberpunk dystopia written by Katsushiro Otomo (writter of Akira) and directed by Rintaro (creator of astro bot and founder of MADHOUSE)
In the grand scheme of things this hyperstylised beautiful movie with gorgeous cyberpunk paronamic scenes is a story about the engineered conflict within the working class that tries to distract us from the real problem that is capitalism and the concentration of money to the top (hence the different vertically aligned zones)
But between the lines it's a story about love and grief, it's also a story about jealousy and to how far all these things will take you. While I don't want to spoil much I want to point out that although the relatively simple/linear storylines of each character apart from the Tima. Most of the characters in t…
Read at the sourceJPGad
An excellent forward-thinking story from Osamu Tezuka, directed by Rintaro who also did The Dagger of Kamui. Metropolis is super impressive, featuring Ghibli-esque animation and colourful psychedelic backgrounds. Early CG is used for the futuristic mechanical equipment, creating a nice contrast between that and the gorgeous traditional artwork. The inclusion of jazz music throughout is another nice touch.
I also appreciate Tezuka’s familiar cast of characters, making it feel that much closer to an Astro Boy story.
Metropolis feels timeless, and has a lot to say about technology, race, war, and humanity.
Screw Flanders Screw Flanders Screw Flanders Screw Flanders Screw Flanders Screw Flanders
Read at the sourceRyanSpring
After watching the three movies in the Memories compilation a few years ago, I finally circled back around to Metropolis, which was included as a bundle in the same DVD set. After watching it I can most certainly understand why these works were bundled together as my observations here are much in line with what I remember from Memories. As far as the presentation, while it couldn't pass for something that came out today, it must have looked absolutely out of this world when it came out in 2001. Not so much the foregrounds, but the backgrounds in particular still look absolutely dazzling a decade and a half later and the color palette on offer in addition to the lighting effects and unique, fitting soundtrack come together for an extremely impressive cohesive whole.
As with Memories, they…
Read at the sourceUnknow0059
This has the environmental visuals of Mob Psycho, the casually important scenes of Akira, the pace of Lucky Star to the soundtrack of... Team Fortress.
I could hardly take this movie seriously, and barely was able to get myself to end this.
Maybe it would've been better if it was your first political story ever, and the west was exotic to you.
There's an excess of direct exposition and lack of indirect.
At one point, character A flat-out tells character B a fact he should know given his position, but the audience already knows this, and it's not dramatic or nothing, just "factual".
There also is one recurring word that's ineffective and pointless relative to how much it shows up.
The pace seems entirely wrong.
It walks to run, prowls to sprint, but whether you are given direct exposition…
Read at the sourcebob-weebington
A nice showcase of Tezuka's art style in an animated film.
The plot progresses fairly quickly, leading up to the climax.
Some of the rooms and animations are very impressive. I distinctly remember the room with the giant robot fish, and the tall escalator some of the rich guys come down. You also get to see some worldbuilding where you see what various robots are being used for and doing.
The only bad point about this is it's over too song. The plot builds, the climax happens, and then you're back to square 1 basically. But I guess that's better than taking 23 episodes to do the same thing.
Read at the sourceimmosha
An amazingly animated movie with beautiful visuals, but drags too much to be a particularly captivating movie.
Modeled somewhere between the 1927 German film and Tezuka's manga, it provides a criticism of industrialist oligarchy and presents a view of warfare that resounds quite strongly in our tech-dominated world in 2025. Overall, not a bad way of addressing the themes of workers and technology.
The animation is incredible - I was often caught surprised at the raw amount of animated ones used for many scenes, and the realism in movement despite the Tezuka-inspired designs is something you simply don't see much of today. The CG isn't amazing, but sparsely used and serviceable considering the work.
Unfortunately, the lengthy world building and poorly fleshed out characters fail to inspi…
Read at the sourceRedlinkkid
Just got out of watching Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis; Written by Katsuhiro Otomo and directed by Rintaro, since it got reaired thanks to an Anime Expo Cinema Event. Always love that they do that so I can appreciate these movies in theaters. What an excellent movie. My theater was small but after we finished the film we all talked about Captain Harlock and how cool the movie was. I should get my parents to watch it. This movie doesn't get a lot of talk so it was nice to watch it and experience it blind as someone who hadn't read the manga. A must-watch for any older anime enjoyed!! I have to read the manga because I've heard it is very different, I wish Dark Horse would reprint it alongside a bunch of other Tezuka stuff, would be nice. Yeah would recommend, 9/10
Read at the sourceMidnight_Bunny
First anime movie I watched and as a child I gained self awareness when watching this movie- very important lore
The animations and details they added was some amazing at the time
As well as the plot, which still hold strong in my mind, even made me cry, some some lessons to be learned in the movie as well- would recommend.
As well as I think the character and the entire story could be symbolic if your looking at it from the right perspectives- the hold nior futuristic animation environment and style really is fantastic after all being the first anime I'd ever seen- it was truly like giving a child ego proxy to watch over and over agian until they understand.
Read at the sourceBensonas
I really enjoyed this film. End to end it kept me engaged in story whilst the animation continued to be stunning throughout.
Animation wise, this reminded me a lot of the style from Porco Rosso. Its like it has hints of Disney whilst rooted in Japanese animation. This films animation is stunning. Everything moves fluidly, the characters, I feel anyway, are nicely designed and have their own originality. As we journey through the film we are treated to variety. The environments vary in a nicely contrasting way, the above ground segments looks vibrant and full of life and the below ground environment look dull and devoid of life, not physically but spiritually. The animation does a really good job of painting the picture this story is trying to convey and is honestly one of the most classy…
Read at the sourcebergars
I could feel those animators crack their knuckles, the blood and bones from their hands sticking out. A visual showcase of mastery like not many other animated films, sadly, I wish I could say the same for the story.
Metropolis explores a futuristic dilemma of humans being replaced by robots. As functional beings, the story of robots being better is something of a typical sci-fi element these days. The story is taken from an old manga, and it really shows. A dated protagonist with dated sidekicks, dated villains with dated motives. By dated, I don't mean to say it's inherently bad, but when adapting a story from an old medium, compromises have to be made.
The biggest flaw in the story is, if characters weren't the way they are, the story can't happen. Extreme people that go to insane len…
Read at the sourceTheQueerInYellow
I've never seen a film like Metropolis before, and I mean that in the best and worst ways. It is seriously difficult to describe, and having just finished it ten minutes ago, I have no idea how to explain what even happens in this film. The TL;DR is don't watch this if you're expecting a typical cyberpunk shounen like I was. But if you're into experimental, odd, or just plain weird shit you may actually really love this film.
THE BAD
There's zero character development. No-one, from the villains to the heroes to the side-characters have narrative depth. We know nothing of any character's backstory or motivation, and we don't know why they take most of the actions they do. The characters are simply representations of actions, emotions, thoughts, etc. Their existence is purely symbolic. I re…
Read at the sourceasei
First what I want to say is Motoko from Ghost in the Shell, Alita from Gunnm, or Dorothy from The Big O are more compelling characters. Actually my favourites in anime/manga or even in entertainment media overall. Tima has a basic plotline. Being the highly intelligent robot that rebels in the end. You can sympathize her when she has got saved by Kenichi, but when she goes berserk I just don't care. We have seen such plot in most robot movies. Even if mechanical life is possible and artificial intelligence may be real, if a robot is malicious it is an enemy. Otherwise it is a beautiful movie. Great direction, animation and music.
Read at the sourceCiaran_Zagami
WHOOOOO BOY
The fancy CGI, the main selling point of Metropolis is terrible.
The best shots are the ones where there are no humans because all the humans look hilariously awful. Everyone is drawn like a mutant Stretch Armstrong accept for Kenichi who looks an awful lot like Astro Boy.
The story is deeply unoriginal.
The worst use of the tower of Babel myth I've ever seen, mixed in with dozens of other cliches, the Naive super weapon robot child, robots as a metaphor for classism or some other ism whatever is in vogue, at least 15 fake out deaths mostly of the same handful of characters.
Metropolis never gives its character's a single second to breathe, out side of Rock whose at best a tertiary villain I don't know anyone's motives.
Rock's sole character trait is he never got hugged…
Read at the sourceAnemoianArts
It's actually upsetting just how forgotten this movie is, because there is so much to love about it. I feel like it genuinely earns a spot up there with other brilliant classics in anime like Akria, Ghost in the Shell, and Perfect Blue. So much work went into the production of this film and I can appreciate every scene in it without fail because of how much care and love is put into it.
The best part of this movie is easily the animation. There's not a second that goes by where something isn't moving. There could be a very basic shot of the main characters walking down a street, and you can see stray cats jumping around or other people going about their business as the town lulls into a quiet evening all in the same frame. The environment becomes alive with dynamic lighting and ambience a…
Read at the sourceazizsahar
Note: might contain some spoilers.
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Visual treat of the highest order.
I'm not in position to talk about the divergence between the manga and anime, so I'll just review this movie as a separate piece of art on its own. Any so-called "otaku" who doesn't rate this highly (at least for the visuals) is a questionable one for that matter. I'm absolutely head over heels in love with this movie! It has different personal interests of mine, all combined in one place: retrofuturism, Art Deco, and reflexive reasoning on the AI question.
This particular story doesn't go very deep, but it offers the questions we all ask in a simple and rather elegant way. Even the emotions are stripped and toned down to their proper places. Tima is the potential of human intelligence, and how that is capable of…
Read at the sourceAdampk
Finally completed, this awful abomination. Rintaro strikes again (first neo tokyo, then final fantasy and now this shit.) He has no idea that movie should be presentable to audience. It looks awful shit and painful to watch. I actually had to watch it 3 times just so that I could wouldn't get distracted by his presentation and focus my eyes and brain of the story.
This movie biggest problem is the "viewpoint". whenever there is character interaction or speech, normally anime are supposed to show character's face at close up view. but this this movie does the opposite. There are 3 ways this movie sets the viewpoint during speeches or interaction-
- Far view point (almost 40%)
basically shows a large area like airport or party hall from the farthest view. Multiple characters are present in…
Read at the sourceShreksSon64
I just watched this today and I have to say this is definitely one of my favorite animated movies of all time. I did not expect to be on the verge of tears but I was, the ending is absolutely phenomenal.
The animation itself is some of the most beautiful I've seen and the music is great as well. I pretty much love almost everything about this film. My only real complaint about the movie is the voice acting felt off sometimes, but that's my own fault since I watched the dub because I was watching it with my little brother.
I highly recommend this movie with every fiber of my being. My God I just saw it and I already plan on rewatching it again tonight.
Read at the sourceRosanneWeebanne
I highly recommend this movie for anyone who wants either a thrilling action/ sci-fi movie, a visually stunning and cinematographic movie or for wonderful world-building. This review is spoiler free and will speak of the movie in a way for the reader to grasp the overall idea of the film.
It's setting is a 20's set era in a sci-fi world were humans and robots live together. Although the theme of robots against humanity is a often-used plot device, it works really well in the movie and is not even the main plot.
Metropolis is based of the manga with the same title by the mangaka legend Osamu Tezuka. It was written by the mangaka and director of Akira. The manga was based on the live-action movie with the same title from year 1927. The anime movie is from 2001 and directed by Rintaro and m…
Read at the sourceTzzrch
This movie is a lot like Akira, Except the story makes a lot more sense and is easier to follow. The art style and characters are lot more colorful too. This movie basically felt like Akira: for kids. Even though there's still a pretty heavy tone and a good amount of violence. The actual animations I would say are on par with Akira. But because it was made in 2001 some of the cgi looks funny by modern standards. There were parts where it just looked like sprites dancing on top of a picture of a lego circuit board. To me that's part of it's charm. I can see how other people might call it a negative. This movie isn't really the best at anything but I think it would be enjoyable to a wider audience than most anime. I get kind of a "Treasure Planet" vibe from it, I think they came out around t…
Read at the source
