HEAVY METAL
A film review by Chad Polenz
Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz
** (out of 4 = fair) 1981, R, 90 minutes [1 hour, 30 minutes] [animated - fantasy] Starring the voices of: Richard Romanus (Harry Canyon), Susan Roman (Girl, Satellite), John Candy (Den, Desk Sergeant, Dan, Robot), Harold Ramis (Zeks), produced by Ivan Reitman, written by Dan Goldberg, Len Blum, directed by Gerald Potterman, based on characters and stories created by Cornelius Cole, Richard Corben, Juan Gimenez, Angus McKie, Dan O'Bannon, Thomas Warkentin, Berni Wrightson.
The fantasy genre often deals with mythological themes like the ultimate battle between good and evil, but it hardly ever presents them in relatable terms. "Heavy Metal" is an anthology of about a half dozen stories all somehow connected by a symbol of "the ultimate evil in the universe," but it's too strange and poorly assembled to appreciate.
The evil symbol is a green orb that talks in a menacing voice, speaking in allegories and villainous cliches - oooh scary. The orb is somehow bounced around the universe and through time and affects the people it interacts with.
The first story takes place on Earth in the 21st century. A girl who knows too much is hunted by evil goons who want the orb so they can control the world. Harry Canyon (Romanus), a taxi driver rescues the girl, has a one night stand with her, and then finds himself tangled up in the mess. At first this story seemed pretty interesting, but like all the other short tales, this one is over just as it showed potential.
One of the next tales is of Den (Candy), a geeky kid from Earth who finds himself on another planet, with the body of Hercules fighting against two evil cults. The animators must never have seen what a real woman looks like, because the women are usually naked and have double D breasts and 12-inch waists, and of course they all succumb to the men's desires. Now I know why they call it fantasy!
The next four tales involve an intergalactic murder and a naked goddess of some sort. They all seem to be excerpts from larger stories, so when we drop in on them, it's nearly impossible to tell what's going on. The actual events and dialogue are just too surrealistic to comprehend and there doesn't seem to be a point to anything.
None of the stories are deep enough to make us care about the characters, there is absolutely no back story behind any of the tales and thus they are too strange and at times just plain boring. If they want to make a moving story about the battle between good and evil why not make it just one whole, straight story?
"Heavy Metal" started out well but became too weird and stupid for its own good. The actual production of the film is poor: many scenes are colored in an extremely flat manner giving no three dimensional illusion; the line art is also ugly, flat, unrealistic, and disproportioned; even the sound quality is low. Art is in the eye of the beholder, but there is a difference between good and bad movies and this is not a good one.
Please visit Chad'z Movie page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz
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