(Review originally written at 2 May 2005)
This truly is a classic masterpiece and honestly one of the best movies ever made. The story is brilliant and the visuals amazing.
I have seen the German 147 minutes version of the movie, without subtitles. Yes it's a long watch but it's worth every second of it. Basically only reason why the movie is so long is because they need about ten hand gestures to speak one sentence. It's kind of dreadful to look at first but once you're used to it, it shouldn't trouble you anymore.
In many ways this movie can be regarded as the "Blade Runner" of the '20's. "Metropolis" is set in a futuristic world that has a same kind of atmosphere as in "Blade Runner". The mix of '20's cars and propeller-planes with futuristic machines, highways, buildings and androids is very unusual but an absolutely awesome thing to look at. The movie was ahead of its time and in some ways also prophetic.
The story is absolutely the best thing of the movie. Also the way the story is told and directed by Fritz Lang deserves credit. The story is tense and has quite some symbolism, layers and storyline's but remains always easy to follow. The ending is truly spectacular and tense. The way how spectacular and tense the ending and the entire movie in general was, really surprised me in a positive way.
The sets are obviously fake and miniatures at times but they still manage to convince and impress. Further more the movie is filled with some fantastic and very convincing early special effects.
Man who also deserves credit is Alfred Abel. Wow, what a great actor he was in this movie.
An absolute must see and one of the best movies of all time.
10/10
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