Heavy Metal is Weird

It's been a while since I did a film review outside of the Horror Classics series. With that in mind, I wanted to revisit a film that I've seen a few times. That film is one that I've talked about before - 1981's Heavy Metal.

Heavy Metal is a Canadian sci-fi anthology film that was produced by Ivan Reitman and released to a mixed reception in 1981. The film is a collection of short stories based on the stories from the Heavy Metal magazine. It was praised for its animation and soundtrack, but criticized for it's graphic violence and sexual material.

Still, the film grossed a $20.1 million on a $9.3 million, so it was a major commercial success.

The Story

The film starts off with an astronaut landing on earth and showing his daughter a green stone. The stone subsequently disintegrates the man to his daughter's horror and addresses itself as 'the sum of all evils' and insists that she sees certain things. This is the framing device of the whole film.

What follows is a series of shorts that showcases how the orb - called the Loc Nar - has influenced a variety of civilizations.

Harry Canyon

Harry Canyon, follows a taxi driver named Harry Canyon as he navigates a futuristic New York while helping a young woman handle an exchange of the Loc Nar for money.

Den

Den starts off with a kid finding a 'green meteorite' - I wonder what that could be - in his backyard. A lightning strike during an electricity experiment, teleports him to a fantasy world where he becomes a muscular adult named Den. He saves a young woman from being a human sacrifice, before they're kidnapped. He is sent to steal the Loc Nar from a political rival of Ard (the guy who kidnapped them).

Captain Sternn

Lincoln F. Sternn is a crooked space captain facing major legal troubles. His charges include: 22 counts of piracy, 12 counts of 1st degree murder, 18 counts of fraud, 14 counts of armed theft, 37 counts of rape, and one moving violation. He pleads not guilty, explaining to his lawyer that he's bribed the key witness.

Things go pear-shaped, however, when the witness - under the influence of the Loc Nar - blurts out several incriminating statements and goes on a rampage.

B-17

B-17 follows a pilot who is trying to get back to safety following a tricky bomb run that had resulted in the death of the whole flight crew - except the pilots. When the Loc Nar embeds itself in the hull of the plane it reanimates the crew which, of course, terrifies the pilot.

So Beautiful & So Dangerous

This one is weird. A young woman is abducted by aliens and then romanced by a little robot...like I said, weird.

Taarna

Taarna is the final short before the epilogue/end of the film. The Loc Nar lands in a volcano on a distant Utopian world and transforms some of the locals into barbarian warriors. As they rampage through the land, a group of academics perform a ritual to summon a defender - the titular Taarna.

Pros and Cons

This film is...weird, but I enjoy watching it from time to time.

The stories are all interesting enough, and the soundtrack is just phenomenal! Every tune is an absolute banger and you can't help dancing along to the beats. Performance-wise, everyone brought their A-game to the proverbial table.

Visually, the animation is a mixed bag. Some of it is very nice, but much of it is just painful to look at. The pacing is all over the place with some of the shorts being an absolute slog to get through while others just move along at a good clip. This issue with the pacing can give you serious tonal whiplash.

Which were my Favorites?

So, which of the shorts were my favorites?

1. Taarna - I'm a sucker for a good fantasy story and the wild west vibes that this one gives off are great. The animation is very nicely done and the music is very nice as well.
2. Captain Sternn - there's just something about this one, apart from the super clean animation, that makes it super fun to watch.
3. B-17 - the music is fantastic and the ending is absolutely chilling.

Worth a Watch?

So, is Heavy Metal worth a watch? Well...yes, and no. If you're curious and you like old school animation styles, then this will be an interesting watch. Otherwise, it's a film that might not appeal too much.

That said, those are my thoughts. Let me know yours in the comments section, have you watched this one? What did you think of it?