Review of: HEAVY METAL (1981)
Review written: 1/24/98 Copyright 1998 Afterburner Email me at: aburner@erols.com
Rating (out of 10): 6
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I've only seen HEAVY METAL (1981) twice: Once on cable back in 1982, and again last night after renting the video on a whim. I've discovered that I liked the movie a lot better when I was a pubescent teen back in 1982.
Oh, don't get me wrong. There's still a lot to like about HEAVY METAL. But hormonally-charged teen males tend to gloss over subtleties like plot and story when someone waves a pair of naked 36-D breasts in their face, even if the breasts are animated. It was an older, wiser, more sedate Afterburner that watched HEAVY METAL again last night, and I spotted some flaws that eluded me the first time through.
The plot, such as it is, involves the Loc-Nar. The Loc-Nar is a glowing green orb of varying size that also happens to be the embodiment of all that is evil in the universe. Through a series of animated vignettes, we learn the story of the Loc-Nar as it tells its twisted history to a terrified young girl. We see a cabbie in a futuristic New York get involved in a plan to steal the Loc-Nar; we see a 18-year old nerd transported to another dimension and transformed into a muscle-bound hero try to stop an evil plan involving the Loc-Nar; we see a B-17 pilot menaced by the skeletons of his dead crew as a consequence of the Loc-Nar. These stories and more are told as the movie progresses.
The problem with HEAVY METAL stems from the fact that the makers of the movie wanted to get a lot of folks associated with the magazine involved. So there are 8 or 10 different vignettes, all representing different stories which have appeared in the magazine over the years. Which means that each story has about 10 minutes to explain itself for those not familiar with the magazine, and then resolve its conflict. For some segments ("Soft Landing," "Grimaldi"), this isn't a problem because the segment is just a set-up for other segments. But other segments seem incredibly rushed. You can almost feel the characters thinking "I've got to get this over with QUICK before the next vignette!" The vignette that suffers the least from this problem is the "B-17" vignette, and it's frequently cited by fans as the best vignette in the movie.
The attempt to involve as many people as possible also produces the problem that not all of the vignettes fit the over-arching plot. Each vignette is supposedly a story of the Loc-Nar spreading its evil. But in the "DEN" vignette, its plans are thwarted by the hero. And in the "So Beautiful & So Dangerous" vignette, it doesn't even appear. Nor does there seem to be any connection to the spreading of evil (or the thwarting thereof) in this vignette.
I don't think I'll be ruining the movie for anyone by revealing that the Loc-Nar is eventually killed. But this is also somewhat confusing in that the Loc-Nar seems to commit suicide by telling the young girl a story of Taarna, who (in the story) kills one of its incarnations. It seems that the Loc-Nar dies because Taarna kills it. But Taarna only kills it in the story. And yet it dies anyway in the "real world."
As mentioned, these are all points I missed the first time I saw the movie. The good points I remembered are still there, though: The soundtrack rocks, and is a great cross-section of the rock-n-roll scene of the late '70s/early '80s. (It even contains a song from my all-time favorite band, Blue Öyster Cult.) And the stories, while brief, do tend to convey that sense of "otherness" that sets apart the great SF/Fantasy from the merely good. And there's naked, animated 36-D breasts aplenty, although this might appeal only to a limited audience.
In short, then, HEAVY METAL is entertaining, but with some serious flaws. Recommended for the SF/Fantasy video festivals at the Frat House, or for popcorn fun on a lazy Saturday night.
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