Cult Classic

I recently got a chance to watch Heavy Metal, the cult-classic animated feature from 1981. I only know the Heavy Metal magazine in passing, and knowing the kind of stuff they put out I had a reasonably good idea of what to expect. As it turned out, I was right, but I don't mean that in a bad way.

The movie was okay, even if the animation was terribly dated and quite strange at times (like the credits at the beginning), and it was true to what little I know of the magazine. There was some fantasy, some sci-fi, lots of nudity (and I mean ladies with boobs bigger than their heads), monsters, robots and spaceships. Such variety can be explained through the structure of the movie-- a collection of short stories with a common element: a powerful orb that everyone covets. This premise allows us to experience different tales, ranging from the crime noir to the aforementioned more standard sci-fi and fantasy portions of the movie, with the last tale being my favorite.

The movie wasn't great, but it was enjoyable, but one thing kept nagging at me throughout the whole film: that the stories would look much better on the page than they did on the screen. Maybe it was the animation that made me think so, but I honestly believe these tales would benefit from a panel-to-panel presentation, as this seemed to be their origin and kind of looked like a goofy attempt at translating the comic book sequentials into film. But maybe things would have been different had Heavy Metal been made last year instead of twenty-eight ago. And now that I bring it up, I hear they want to make another HM movie, and directors such as David Fincher, Gore Verbinski, Kevin Eastman, Mark Osborne, and James Cameron are interested in directing some of the different segments. I have a feeling that one is going to be way better than this campy romp!