Metropolis (1927) [Movie Review]

Alright, I think I'll try getting back into writing about movies. Hopefully better this time around.

I thought Metropolis might be a good place to start. It was the movie picked to be discussed in my movie club, and after watching it I fell in love and watched it again! I watched two different versions of the movie; both are currently available on US Netflix Instant. I watched the 2011 Metropolis restoration, Metropolis Restored, first. Then I watched the 1984 restoration, Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis.

Both films have there pros and cons, but I think the 2011 restoration was much better. The 1984 version featured an all '80s soundtrack (all of which was pop music, I might add) and instead of keeping the film black and white, they 'restored' the color to be either blue or yellow. Both of these things are severely distracting. They also removed the subtitle cards, and just placed the subtitles as an overlay on the video. That was the only aspect of this restoration I enjoyed. It cut down on some unnecessary time. The 2011 version featured more footage that was thought to be lost over the years, which is another pro for that version.

So, anyway, if you get a choice, go for the 2011 restoration.

Now on to my thoughts for the movie. I already said that I fell in love with it, so I'll just go on to say why. I don't watch a whole lot of silent films, though that is mostly due to the fact that they are so hard to find. But even though I most of my movies are talkies, Metropolis has really ignited a love for silence. I think this would be a good movie to tread the waters for silent films.

The technology seen in this movie seemed very sophisticated for it's time. It's always interesting watching movies from the past that are about the future, and this is no exception. What's depicted in this movie is a very extreme version of what the world could come to, but at the same time it's not far off from our current world. We all know about that 99% vs. the 1% deal that was all the rage a couple years back, well what happened in Metropolis is just a more extreme version of that. We still have a few years to go before we reach the date set in Metropolis, though.

Rating: 8/10

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