When it comes to music, I love Metallica. The energy they give off and the kick-ass music it blasts to your ears makes Metallica one of my favorite bands. So, I was pretty excited to hear that this next concert movie wasn’t one of the many terrible pop musicians on top of the iTunes charts, and was Metallica. I was even more excited to hear that this wasn’t a generic concert documentary and actually had a story to it. This movie seemed like a dream for me. After seeing it, I actually wish there was a little more of the story instead of the band but I am very very pleased with the end result and it’s easily the best concert movie I’ve ever seen.
Metallica: Through the Never has a character named Trip (Dane DeHaan) going out on a mission to pick up a bag with unknown contents for the band Metallica. While this is happening, there are riots and a guy on a horse killing people all the while we see footage of the band playing.
Through the Never is a bizarre movie with not a whole lot making sense. Trip’s story has no explanation whatsoever with the whole thing feeling like a dream. Some might hate that and I would totally understand but I on the other hand loved it. The entire movie was unexpected, I had no idea what would happen next. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Metallica to finish up one of their many excellent numbers to see what happened in this story. The ending was a little disappointing but I still really enjoyed the story aspect. Major props to Dane DeHaan for doing a magnificent job with hardly any words spoken throughout the whole thing.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4IhWJ8r7_4[/youtube]
As for Metallica’s performance, they were obviously fantastic. They put on one hell of a show with lots of crazy crap happening on stage while they’re performing. While I do wish we got more of the story, it was awesome seeing the performances as, like I said earlier, the band gives off a great energy. Sure, the performances aren’t anything too special as I’m sure there’s hundreds of Metallica concert videos on YouTube, but the camera work here is obviously better.
Nimród Antal does a fantastic job directing this film. The concert footage is exquisite and the story scenes were beautifully shot. This is a gorgeous movie and really one of the better looking films I’ve seen all year. I was blown away.
What I was not blown away by was the 3D. I saw the film in IMAX 3D and while the sound is phenomenal, the picture was letterboxed and the 3D added nothing. Most of the time I forgot I was even wearing 3D glasses. If you can do IMAX then I recommend that for the best sound experience but stick to 2D if that’s not an option.
THE VERDICT
Metallica: Through the Never isn’t exactly a movie you can sell. If you’re not a fan of Metallica then nothing I say will make you want to see the movie and if you like Metallica then you will probably see the movie no matter what I say. I can let you know that the story was a lot of fun with a great performance by Dane DeHaan and Metallica is just as fantastic as ever. The 3D sucks and I wish there was a teeny bit more story but I was overall very happy with Metallica: Through the Never and I hope we get more great concert films like this one.
For reviews and more from me, Petey Oneto, you can check out my blog but be sure to check back to Resident Entertainment for more of my posts in the future.