Metropolis (2001)History and myth have shown how the pride and avarice of humans leads them to believe that they are as gods, toying with life to achieve their own ambitions. Metropolis (2001) is an animated science fiction film about a dystopian future city (named Metropolis), where robots are treated as slaves, and any disobedience is put down by a militant group of vigilantes known as the Marduk Party, informally headed by a wealthy entrepreneur named Duke Red (Jamieson Price). Duke Red has recently completed the construction of a massive tower he calls the Ziggurat--a looming testament to his own glory that harbors a secret which only the mysterious robot girl named Tima (Rebecca Forstadt) can unlock.
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Metropolis is modeled after the classic silent film of the same name by Fritz Lang, and features numerous stylistic flourishes in homage to this formative cinematic classic. The setting is a crowded urban environment with towers rising high into the heavens--where the rich call home--and deep, subterranean levels where the impoverished and marginalized dwell. There is a palpable tension between the classes in both films, which ultimately boils over into violent revolution. The aesthetic of this film borrows from Lang's vision of the future, including designs that are both futuristic and embody the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s; there are even zeppelins that navigate the skyscraper-ridden city. Metropolis also includes nods to films from the era of its predecessor in its cinematography, including frequent use of screen wipes and iris shots. Even the music in this movie is heavily infused with jazz that would be contemporaneous with the time in which the original was released. Metropolis was directed by Rintaro (Shigeyuki Hayashi) from the manga by Osamu Tezuka, and with a screenplay by Katsuhiro Otomo, and its high standard of quality is evident from that exceptional pedigree of accomplished Japanese artists. The film also shares similarities to Otomo's anime classic, Akira, in theme and design. Like Tetsuo Shima from Akira, Tima is cursed with a legacy of destructive power that she doesn't want, and is treated like a pawn by the power elite. She has been engineered by the unscrupulous Dr. Laughton (Simon Prescott) at Duke Red's request, and made to resemble his late daughter. Her purpose is to "sit on the throne" of power at the pinnacle of the Ziggurat, which is secretly a weapon that will enable Duke Red to claim dominion over the world. (Her creator is presented alternately as both sniveling and scheming, and is a surrogate for Rotwang from the original silent film.) Duke Red's project might have gone off without a hitch were it not for his ward and the leader of the Marduks charged with assassinating rogue robots, a young man named Rock (Michael Reisz). Rock is jealous of Tima because he considers himself to be Duke Red's adopted son, although his guardian vocally refutes this presumption. Rock tries to assassinate Laughton and destroy Tima prior to her activation, but Tima escapes thanks to a young boy from Japan named Kenichi (Brianne Siddall). Kenichi accompanied his grandfather, Shinsaku Ban (Tony Pope), to Metropolis because Shinsaku was charged with arresting Laughton for organ trafficking. The two visitors end up getting tangled in the unfolding conspiracy that turns into a revolution, one catalyzed by an idealistic young man named Atlas (Scott Weinger), whose efforts to depose the Marduk Party are manipulated behind the scenes by President Boone (Richard Plantagenet) and Mayor Lyon (Peter Spellos). But between the violent riots and political scheming, Kenichi forges a friendship with Tima that makes her question whether she is just a robot or--because of her discovery that she has feelings and emotions--something closer to a human being.
Metropolis establishes who is good and who is evil largely by how these people (and robots) treat one another. The Ziggurat is a towering structure that evokes the story of the Tower of Babel and the hubris of the men who saw themselves as being on the same footing as God by building it--as if they were not subject to the laws of ordinary men. (Atlas makes this comparison directly in Metropolis.) Because of this arrogance, men like Duke Red and his ilk are almost immediately identified as villains in Metropolis, and their subsequent actions support this. When Shinsaku comes to Metropolis, Police Superintendent Notarlin (William Frederick Knight) claims he cannot spare any human police support, but offers a robotic guide instead, who Shinsaku dubs "Pero" (Dave Mallow) due to his complicated alphanumeric serial number. Pero tells Shinsaku that robots are not allowed to bear human names, and the audience is meant to draw comparisons between this arbitrary rule and other similar injustices in history where select groups of people were treated as second-class citizens. Rock slays any robots who deviate from their assigned zones without hesitation as a Marduk; furthermore, he shows no remorse in killing anyone--be they robots or humans--who impedes his mission to cover up his botched attempt at destroying Tima. The ruling government presents itself as being on good terms with Duke Red, but secretly harbors acrimony toward the capitalist, and secretly plots to destroy him--a traitorous attitude that is revisited upon them later. After Kenichi and Tima escape the burning wreckage of Laughton's lab, they are cared for by a waste disposal robot who Kenichi calls "Fifi". Fifi appears kindly and even offers the food it has salvaged (rotten or otherwise) to the pair out of the goodness of its metal heart. When they try to escape Rock's pursuit of them in the lower levels, Fifi interposes herself between Rock and his quarry, and pays the ultimate price for her heroism. When Pero attempts to intercede as Atlas and his mob storm the streets of Metropolis, the "noble" leader weakly tries to justify his rage by gunning down the rational robot. Like with Rock, it is clear that despite his excuses, it is merely hatred and rhetoric that compels him, meaning that Pero has more free will than the human who assassinates him. Tima is the pinnacle of this portrayal of robots as noble victims of their human oppressors. Despite looking completely human and endowed with unprecedented cognitive capabilities, she was built exclusively to be a glorified key to control the Ziggurat's weapon system. Tima is depicted as ethereal and angelic--her hair wafts in the wind, rays of light shine down brightly upon her, and when a bird lands on her shoulder, its wing looks as though it were extending from her own shoulder blade. The lesson at the heart of Metropolis is that mankind has a moral responsibility to be respectful stewards of all life on the planet, no matter how they were born or made, or how they choose to live.
Recommended for: Fans of a gorgeous animated science fiction film that deals with familiar genre themes--like what it means to be human--but also themes of equality and humility. Metropolis depicts the eponymous city and its denizens through a combination of hand-drawn animation and extensive computer-generated imagery, giving the film a distinct look that merges the traditional anime aesthetic with something modern and intentionally disparate, speaking to the similarities and differences between the natural and artificial in the context of the film and its setting.
Metropolis establishes who is good and who is evil largely by how these people (and robots) treat one another. The Ziggurat is a towering structure that evokes the story of the Tower of Babel and the hubris of the men who saw themselves as being on the same footing as God by building it--as if they were not subject to the laws of ordinary men. (Atlas makes this comparison directly in Metropolis.) Because of this arrogance, men like Duke Red and his ilk are almost immediately identified as villains in Metropolis, and their subsequent actions support this. When Shinsaku comes to Metropolis, Police Superintendent Notarlin (William Frederick Knight) claims he cannot spare any human police support, but offers a robotic guide instead, who Shinsaku dubs "Pero" (Dave Mallow) due to his complicated alphanumeric serial number. Pero tells Shinsaku that robots are not allowed to bear human names, and the audience is meant to draw comparisons between this arbitrary rule and other similar injustices in history where select groups of people were treated as second-class citizens. Rock slays any robots who deviate from their assigned zones without hesitation as a Marduk; furthermore, he shows no remorse in killing anyone--be they robots or humans--who impedes his mission to cover up his botched attempt at destroying Tima. The ruling government presents itself as being on good terms with Duke Red, but secretly harbors acrimony toward the capitalist, and secretly plots to destroy him--a traitorous attitude that is revisited upon them later. After Kenichi and Tima escape the burning wreckage of Laughton's lab, they are cared for by a waste disposal robot who Kenichi calls "Fifi". Fifi appears kindly and even offers the food it has salvaged (rotten or otherwise) to the pair out of the goodness of its metal heart. When they try to escape Rock's pursuit of them in the lower levels, Fifi interposes herself between Rock and his quarry, and pays the ultimate price for her heroism. When Pero attempts to intercede as Atlas and his mob storm the streets of Metropolis, the "noble" leader weakly tries to justify his rage by gunning down the rational robot. Like with Rock, it is clear that despite his excuses, it is merely hatred and rhetoric that compels him, meaning that Pero has more free will than the human who assassinates him. Tima is the pinnacle of this portrayal of robots as noble victims of their human oppressors. Despite looking completely human and endowed with unprecedented cognitive capabilities, she was built exclusively to be a glorified key to control the Ziggurat's weapon system. Tima is depicted as ethereal and angelic--her hair wafts in the wind, rays of light shine down brightly upon her, and when a bird lands on her shoulder, its wing looks as though it were extending from her own shoulder blade. The lesson at the heart of Metropolis is that mankind has a moral responsibility to be respectful stewards of all life on the planet, no matter how they were born or made, or how they choose to live.
Recommended for: Fans of a gorgeous animated science fiction film that deals with familiar genre themes--like what it means to be human--but also themes of equality and humility. Metropolis depicts the eponymous city and its denizens through a combination of hand-drawn animation and extensive computer-generated imagery, giving the film a distinct look that merges the traditional anime aesthetic with something modern and intentionally disparate, speaking to the similarities and differences between the natural and artificial in the context of the film and its setting.