This film is extremely odd. It combines different genres (adventure, crime, drama, sci-fi, comedy and horror) with R-Rated elements (sex, nudity, gore, extreme violence and profanity) all done in cel animation. I personally think this film is a huge mess but certain parts are very well done. The film opens in space with Elmer Bernsteins haunting score playing. As the credits role we watch a model animated astronaught return to Earth on a space-vehicle. This credits sequence is awesome, combining the stop-animated and sometimes hand painted animated astronaut. Then we meet a green globe which represents pure evil. It tells storys of how it has been around for ever all around the galaxy and what it has done to it. The first story is, OK. It's predicible and ends kind of lamely but it's OK. The second story is pretty much a big mess. It's called Den about a nerd who gets transported to a place where he is the hero and sleeps with every woman who wants him and saves the world and the alien civilization. It's really nothing more that a 12 year old perverts fantasy and it's a waste of time. The third story is better than the firts few called "Captain Stern" and it reminds me of the old Nelvana animated cartoon shows except for the language that is. The fourth story is a masterpiece. It's called B-17. It opens up as WWII fighters and planes are battling each other. The only surviving plane, being of course a B-17, flys off after all of the others have also gone or have been destroyed. The only surrviving people on the plane are the pilots and one of them goes back to see what's going on. He sees that everyone else has died of bullet wounds. Then a circular green meteor-like object lands on the plane for a short moment and then leaves. When the meteor leaves, the dead bodies of the men come back alive, as skeletons who's organs are falling out. Now the 2 pilots must face ultimate evil while trying to escape the B-17. This story reminds me of old EC comic books such as "Tales from the Crypt" and "Vault of Horror." This was extremely well done, accompanied by an awesome and haunting score by Elmer Bernstein, the animation was done so that it looks like you're watching a living horror comic book on your TV. The 5th story is another excuse to show sex and pathetic antics. This time with a sex-crazed robot and 2 drug addicted aliens. The last story is so boring, I don't even feel like talking about it; it's so poorly written and looong, it's the longest segment in the film and not even Bernstein's score can save it and it was worse to find out that the end that the whole bookended storyline (with the meteor and the girl) ties in with the last one. I'd say that this movie has one excellent segment which should be scene by horror comic book fans, but the rest is terrible.
Review of Heavy Metal
