The last time Metallica had a movie about them in theaters it was the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster, perhaps the absolutely nadir of the band’s thirty-year history. The band had recently fought a publicly unpopular battle with the streaming service Napster, bassist Jason Newsted had left the band, founders James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were at each others’ throats to the point that the band hired a therapist, and longtime fans began to question the musical integrity of the influential thrash metal band after their releases over the previous decade took on an increasingly mainstream rock sound. To make matters worse, a few months prior Metallica released what is generally considered their worst album, St. Anger. Considering the fact that Some Kind of Monster shows the band at its most vulnerable, it’s still a question to this day of whether the decision to release it was a wise one.
Then again, what a difference a decade makes. Metallica’s last album, 2008’s Death Magnetic, was their best in decades and the band has been busy touring to support it and other projects since. While it would be wrong to call Metallica nostalgia band like the dozens of classic rock bands that tour on the strength of the appeal of their greatest hits, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Metallica has since repaired the “damage” done to their reputation by doing what the band has always done best: playing incredible live shows. In that sense, the sonic assault of Metallica’s newest movie, Metallica: Through the Never, metaphorically melts down every copy of Some Kind of Monster and buries the refuse in a landfill in New Mexico next to where Atari buried all those Atari 2600 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial cartridges.
Through the Never captures Metallica performing some of their greatest hits live during a series of concerts in August 2012. However, it would be wrong to call the film simply a document of their current live show because the concerts recorded for Through the Never were conceived specifically for the film. The movie’s press boasts that the stage show is the most elaborate ever constructed for an indoor arena, and it is so massive that it would probably be impossible to mount a normal tour with it. In other words, you watch one of the all-time great live bands being backed by one of the most brilliantly designed stage shows ever created.
Of course, Through the Never isn’t simply a concert film — Metallica has already released plenty of live show DVDs, so the band decided to do something different. There is a narrative going on during the performance about a young roadie named Trip (Dane DeHaan) who has to deliver a gas can to a disabled crew truck. But the Metallica concert somehow causes the entire city to go all Mad Max and Trip finds himself in the middle of a series of hallucinogenic experiences (the character is aptly named) involving widespread destruction, police quelling riots, a murderous horseman, a sentient puppet, and fire. Lots of fire. It’s almost as if Metallica found a way to light fire on fire. Huge Metallica fan Beavis (of Beavis and Butt-head, naturally) would be proud.
Visually these experiences are quite cool and it gives the audience something to look at besides the band on stage for 92 minutes (although I could probably watch bassist Robert Trujillo do his unique crab-walk across the stage for 92 minutes). However, I mostly got the impression that Metallica and director Nimrod Antal (Predators, Kontroll), who are the credited screenwriters, sat around and said “wouldn’t it be cool if there was a guy on a horse with gas mask on killing people?” and other images and decided to throw them all in. In that sense, the narrative scenes are like an extended Metallica music video. The best part is that like a music video these sequences are set to the concert’s music — Trip’s sequences have less dialogue than The Artist — so even when we’re not seeing Metallica we’re still hearing them (and that’s the best part anyway, right?)
Metallica: Through the Never is also probably the best use of 3D I’ve seen in a movie since Hugo and shows why a lot of current pop artists like Katy Perry have been making 3D concert films recently. While it’s obviously not exactly the same as being at the live show, 3D adds depth and atmosphere to a concert film that just can’t be done on the typical live show DVDs that most bands put out after every tour. Even if you have had front row seats before, you’ll never be this close to a Metallica concert, and that makes the 3D aspect a feature that puts Through the Never over the top.
Since this is mostly a concert film, it’s hard to give Through the Never a standard rating. So let’s put it this way: if you’re a Metallica fan, be first in line. If you’re a lapsed Metallica fan, see it to remind you how awesome they still are in concert. If you’re not a Metallica fan, go buy Ride the Lightning and/or Master of Puppets and become one, then go see this movie.
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