My Review of "Metal Lords"

Metal Lords is the latest coming of age film to come out in 2022. I was looking forward to seeing this one as I loved School of Rock. This is not School of Rock but that's not a bad thing either. They're able to find their own voice and I love them for this.

The movie starts off with our two bandmates Kevin and Hunter. Kevin would be the main protagonist while Hunter is his supporting character. Though in the movie it's kind of the other way around. Hunter is the brains and heart of their band Skull F@cker. He breathes, sleeps and lives heavy metal. I guess it's been a coping mechanism for his broken family.

Kevin on the other hand is just along for the ride. Hunter's been his best friend for a long time and he holds loyalty to Hunter because they've always been watching each other's backs. That is until high school. Kevin is starting to notice girls and parties. Unfortunately they don't necessarily jive with Hunter's perspective of heavy metal.

Naturally, Kevin is going to discover that there's a whole world outside of heavy metal and Hunter. Since Hunter is so adamant about creating a band this kind of creates a rift in their best friend relationship. I guess the whole movie is about them navigating their lives around their relationship with one another based on this band.

It's very interesting how they dive deeper into Hunter's psyche by explaining how he became the way he is in the movie. This piece of character development really allows the audience to sympathize with his erratic behavior. He does a lot of pretty messed up stuff and through very simple symbolisms through imagery throughout the movie we understand why. That's not to say that it makes an excuse for what he does but he's a teenager so we understand everything is exacerbated a bit for the guy.

Meanwhile Kevin meets up with some interesting characters as well. I love the way that they fill this school up with diverse situations that not a lot of movies take chances on. Certain aspects of mental health are discussed and understood in this movie. It's a great gateway to complicated conversations in our general daily lives. This movie is really keeping with the times as we are now more aware of so many afflictions each one of us suffers from today. Not everyone is the same and this movie really dives deep into this and has fun with it.

I only thought of the School of Rock comparison because it was a movie based on a heavy metal band with a bunch of kids. This is far from that movie. It holds its own as an original story and it is quite entertaining. Each of the characters are relatable and have a certain charm to them. I kept being drawn to them because they actually felt like actual kids in a high school trying to navigate life. Their decisions are life changing and in this movie they explain how they came to their decisions.

The pacing overall is very good but it feels as if there are crucial parts that were cut from this movie. Certain situations just work themselves out from nowhere. Hunter has a character arc that is somewhat glitched closer to the end. I don't know how he came to his resolution so quickly without any sort of real intervention. That was a real weird one and kind of threw me out of the movie for a moment.

Overall, I really liked this movie. It was a lot of fun, engaging and heartwarming as well. There is a lot of charm in this whimsical movie. I'm sure some music lovers will like all the references they make in this movie as well. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It is definitely better than the usual young adult movies that I've seen recently. I'll give a recommendation to this one.