METALLICA: THROUGH THE NEVER DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: Starring Metallica, a cast of thousands of their fans and breakout star Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Metallica Through the Never is written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Nimród Antal (Predators, Kontroll) and produced by former IMAX film producer Charlotte Huggins (Journey to the Center of the Earth). The film marries groundbreaking footage and editing techniques with a compelling narrative, in which a band crew member (played by DeHaan) is sent out on a mission during Metallica's roaring live set in front of a sold-out arena. While on this mission, he unexpectedly has his life turned completely upside down.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Unlike Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and One Direction: This Is Us, one of the oldest heavy rock bands in music history, Metallica decides to offer fans more than just a 3D concert movie instead of generic behind-the-scenes and boring interview with the involved talents

Combining footages from their concerts held in Vancouver with an engaging narrative thrown in, it’s a visceral experience so to speak in Metallica: Through The Never. Showcasing the band’s awesome showmanship and theatrics displays such as flames, eye-blinding laser and a collapsing statue to a series of their signature tunes, it got the entire audience screaming and for a second, I nearly forget about the deafening music.

The movie is impressively shot by Gyula Pados and directed by Nimrod Antal (Predators) but I guess the duo is more involved in the mentioned narrative that featured up-and-coming young star Dane DeHann (The Amazing Spider-Man 2). DeHann played Trip, a roadie who is being assigned to retrieve something crucial from a tour truck which has run out of gas in the city.

While Metallica is playing in the stadium, Trip realizes the whole city is mysteriously deserted. Then signs of violence start to appear, mobs of angry masked people riots against the police including a sinister Horseman who targeted Trip. The entire apocalypse story makes not much of a sense, it doesn’t really have a message or reasoning except being mere fillers to the songs of Metallica. In a way, it’s perhaps a fantasy visualization of the band’s songs however irrelevant it may be. Still, you got to credit DeHann for his captivating performance since he is not fed a single piece of dialogue.  

Backed by vocal James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich of drums, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bass Robert Trujillo, this concert movie proved heavy metal is here to stay. Of course, you need to be a Metallica fan to fully appreciate this else I doubt you can endure 92 minutes of earsplitting screaming and squealing of Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, Enter Sandman etc. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The DVD provides a dark imposing look while the audio meant to be loud and bass heavy is unfortunately constrained by the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

MOVIE RATING:

(Give yourself 1 more star if you are a Metallica fan)

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee