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TribLIVE: Who says a movie has to make sense to be entertaining? “Metallica Through the Never” is a concert documentary/apocalypse thriller/Imax 3-D extravaganza, a veritable turducken of fantasy film, stage spectacle and crushing sonic aggression.
I'm not a Metallica fan by any means, and I would have to see the film to judge accurately, but I can definitely respect the intention behind this. I have seen far too many boring, self-indulgent rockumentaries by big bands that know their massive built in audience will buy. It's possible that this is just an elaborate scheme of the same purpose, however Metallica seems to be of a position where they can really do whatever they want. I doubt this would be much of an enlightening cinematic experience, but that's probably not what Metallica fans are interested in anyway. It sounds like they're going all out for entertainment value, which I can respect.
I think bringing more theatricality to concerts is a good idea. I'm very surprised that there have been so many concert/documentaries over the past decade about musicians who aren't even that great. But I guess its the result of teenage-icon-obsessions. With this Metallica concert, I am curious to see how they balance the music and the performance aspects. From reading the article, it seems as if the music would support the performance rather than vice versa. I don't think the fact that it will be filmed is a big deal though. I've seen several filmed live performances, such as the National Theatre Live shows.They were executed brilliantly. As for the idea that the story doesn't make sense, the story made sense to me. Even if it didn't, our minds would fill in the gaps with our own imagination and create our own interpretation of the piece. The only thing I would be concerned about was the audience in the film. In the picture in the article, I could clearly see most of the audience from the stage lighting. This could create a wall between the viewers and the performance, for it clearly defines the piece as a story and not an experience.
This somewhat reminds me of a cross between PinkFloyd's The Wall and your average concert documentary. I appreciate both forms of entertainment and band performance and am curious as to how Metallica will form the story. As far as The Wall goes, you have to look into the background of the band and plot to understand what is going on in the movie otherwise it looks like dark and crazy nonsense. However since Metallica is doing a cross, I wonder if their movie will flow better or worse. Either way it already seems to be stirring confusion.
3 comments:
I'm not a Metallica fan by any means, and I would have to see the film to judge accurately, but I can definitely respect the intention behind this. I have seen far too many boring, self-indulgent rockumentaries by big bands that know their massive built in audience will buy. It's possible that this is just an elaborate scheme of the same purpose, however Metallica seems to be of a position where they can really do whatever they want. I doubt this would be much of an enlightening cinematic experience, but that's probably not what Metallica fans are interested in anyway. It sounds like they're going all out for entertainment value, which I can respect.
I think bringing more theatricality to concerts is a good idea. I'm very surprised that there have been so many concert/documentaries over the past decade about musicians who aren't even that great. But I guess its the result of teenage-icon-obsessions. With this Metallica concert, I am curious to see how they balance the music and the performance aspects. From reading the article, it seems as if the music would support the performance rather than vice versa. I don't think the fact that it will be filmed is a big deal though. I've seen several filmed live performances, such as the National Theatre Live shows.They were executed brilliantly. As for the idea that the story doesn't make sense, the story made sense to me. Even if it didn't, our minds would fill in the gaps with our own imagination and create our own interpretation of the piece. The only thing I would be concerned about was the audience in the film. In the picture in the article, I could clearly see most of the audience from the stage lighting. This could create a wall between the viewers and the performance, for it clearly defines the piece as a story and not an experience.
This somewhat reminds me of a cross between PinkFloyd's The Wall and your average concert documentary. I appreciate both forms of entertainment and band performance and am curious as to how Metallica will form the story. As far as The Wall goes, you have to look into the background of the band and plot to understand what is going on in the movie otherwise it looks like dark and crazy nonsense. However since Metallica is doing a cross, I wonder if their movie will flow better or worse. Either way it already seems to be stirring confusion.
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