[Anilogue.]

Metropia is Tarik Saleh‘s first fiction film, starring the voices of Vincent Gallo, Juliette Lewis, Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgard and Alexander Skarsgard.

Plot:
2024. After using up the world’s ressources, Europe is in shambles. A huge underground network connects all the subway lines of the major cities, controlled by the Trexx corporation. Roger (Vincent Gallo) tries to avoid the subway as much as possible, going so far as biking to work (which is illegal). But when his bike is broken, he enters the subway station, starts hearing a voice (Alexander Skarsgard) in his head and suddenly sees Nina (Juliette Lewis) – the girl from the shampoo commercial and his dreams. Nina kinda leads him down the rabbit hole into a huge conspiracy.

Metropia has a strange aesthetic, an interesting premise and great voice acting. Unfortunately the animation itself is not that great and it loses itself a bit in the plot.

[Slight Spoilers]

I think what Metropia lacked most was a sense of humor. This is a movie about mind-controlling shampoo – and yet there is not a single joke about that (until you see in the credits that one of the soundtrack songs is called “Hair and Brain Wash”, which is awesome). I mean, of course it’s a rather dark movie and a difficult topic. But approaching it a bit more lightly would have made it a little more accessible.

I also had my problems with the animation. The world looked great and I found the character design interesting (the proportions of the characters were ever so slightly off, giving them huge eyes and a bobble-head feel, which will either irritate you to no end or intrigue you), but they were sparingly animated, with the background often being completely still and the gestures and facial expressions being kept on a minimal basis. And that gave the film a rather static feel.

Though this lack of dynamic might have also come from the plot, which gets just a little too convoluted towards the end, with one twist too many. And it sports some middle-sized holes.

But I loved the whole interaction between Roger and his voice, and I generally liked the characters. The cast was wonderful. I also thought the basic concept was absolutely brilliant.

Summarising: Though it’s not a clear winner, it’s still worth seeing.