On paper the plot synopsis for this film sounded brilliant. At least the plot synopsis that I heard of it. A lone roadie facing some kind of over the top apocalypse with the soundtrack provided by Metallica. On a scale of 1 to awesome that is Godzilla fighting a flaming King Kong.
Unfortunately the direction just doesn't really take this to heart and the result is simply an hour and a half of Metallica performing with interspersed scenes of the actual plot. It's a shame really because where they overlay the music onto the roadie's story the result is absolutely brilliant. Cutting between the riots and the crowd with Cyanide playing is perhaps the best part of the whole film. The intro to And Justice For All whilst he walks beneath the hanging bodies is good as are the scenes cut into Master of Puppets.
The problem is that this underlying plot really should occupy more of the film. Most of it frankly. I mean it doesn't even really appear for the first forty minutes. The music should provide a backdrop for these apocalyptic scenes the whole way through. Instead the roadie's scenes mostly just appear between the songs or during intros and outros. The result is that I was continually left thinking 'when are we going to get back to the plot?' and wanting songs to end just so I could find out what was going on in the actual story.
This is completely the wrong attitude as the music itself is fantastic. I listen to Metallica all the time and I've seen them live a few times however I really never watch 'Live' DVDs as I generally find them boring. The stage show and the atmosphere of a live performance just cannot be captured on film.
The film only really comes into its own in the last half hour when the plot and the show come together properly. The problem is that when this happens it isn't especially clear what the plot is, what's going on or why. There are some pretty epic visuals running alongside the music but it just doesn't make much sense. Yes setting fire to yourself and running into a crowd with flailing fists looks awesome but logically chucking the burning petrol at them is probably more sensible.
Given that the main character is apparently named 'Trip' and he is seen taking a pill towards the start of the film the logical conclusion is that everything that happened, happened in his mind. The film doesn't elaborate on this at the end... in fact it just doesn't really have an ending. It just sort of stops. The problem with using a 'trip' as the basis for a plot is that the viewer cannot really invest in anything that is happening. In terms of narrative it is along the lines of ending a story with 'and then I woke up'; when the reader discovers that the last three hundred pages didn't actually happen they can feel cheated.
I had imagined that this was going to be something along the lines of 28 Days Later accompanied by an hour and a half of metal. In reality it's an hour and a half of metal accompanied by maybe ten minutes of weird cinematics devoid of plot, reason or explanation. The synopsis I heard from a friend evidently was wrong and I cannot blame the film for that. However the notion of an apocalypse taking place whilst the concert goers were completely unaware seemed truly fantastic. That's the film I'd like to see.
Instead of making a strong film which might appeal to a wide market and introduce Metallica's music to a new audience it is a film that only Metallica fans would sit through. When the credits rolled and the band members were listed as the writers, producers, directors and so on... Dethklok's 'Blood Ocean' came to mind...
Unfortunately the direction just doesn't really take this to heart and the result is simply an hour and a half of Metallica performing with interspersed scenes of the actual plot. It's a shame really because where they overlay the music onto the roadie's story the result is absolutely brilliant. Cutting between the riots and the crowd with Cyanide playing is perhaps the best part of the whole film. The intro to And Justice For All whilst he walks beneath the hanging bodies is good as are the scenes cut into Master of Puppets.
The problem is that this underlying plot really should occupy more of the film. Most of it frankly. I mean it doesn't even really appear for the first forty minutes. The music should provide a backdrop for these apocalyptic scenes the whole way through. Instead the roadie's scenes mostly just appear between the songs or during intros and outros. The result is that I was continually left thinking 'when are we going to get back to the plot?' and wanting songs to end just so I could find out what was going on in the actual story.
This is completely the wrong attitude as the music itself is fantastic. I listen to Metallica all the time and I've seen them live a few times however I really never watch 'Live' DVDs as I generally find them boring. The stage show and the atmosphere of a live performance just cannot be captured on film.
The film only really comes into its own in the last half hour when the plot and the show come together properly. The problem is that when this happens it isn't especially clear what the plot is, what's going on or why. There are some pretty epic visuals running alongside the music but it just doesn't make much sense. Yes setting fire to yourself and running into a crowd with flailing fists looks awesome but logically chucking the burning petrol at them is probably more sensible.
Given that the main character is apparently named 'Trip' and he is seen taking a pill towards the start of the film the logical conclusion is that everything that happened, happened in his mind. The film doesn't elaborate on this at the end... in fact it just doesn't really have an ending. It just sort of stops. The problem with using a 'trip' as the basis for a plot is that the viewer cannot really invest in anything that is happening. In terms of narrative it is along the lines of ending a story with 'and then I woke up'; when the reader discovers that the last three hundred pages didn't actually happen they can feel cheated.
I had imagined that this was going to be something along the lines of 28 Days Later accompanied by an hour and a half of metal. In reality it's an hour and a half of metal accompanied by maybe ten minutes of weird cinematics devoid of plot, reason or explanation. The synopsis I heard from a friend evidently was wrong and I cannot blame the film for that. However the notion of an apocalypse taking place whilst the concert goers were completely unaware seemed truly fantastic. That's the film I'd like to see.
Instead of making a strong film which might appeal to a wide market and introduce Metallica's music to a new audience it is a film that only Metallica fans would sit through. When the credits rolled and the band members were listed as the writers, producers, directors and so on... Dethklok's 'Blood Ocean' came to mind...