Film Review: METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER ★★½☆☆☆

Thrash metal pioneers Metallica don't do anything small. So it's only fitting that their big screen concert film, Metallica Through The Never, goes big, as in IMAX 3D big. The band takes the stage, plays, plays, and without question rocks the beejesus out of the arena. The film is firmly targeted to the loyal fans who need no band introductions, on-stage banter between the boys, or song title announcements. If you have not put in your time on the Metallica tour bus over the years however, Through The Never may bleed into one extended distorted heavy metal guitar riff

Metallica Through The Never, an immersive IMAX 3D extravaganza, combines stunning concert performance footage with a dystopian narrative story line that adds more confusion than satisfaction to the overall experience. The closest I have seen the band live was in 1992 (during my high school years) in the floor section at Giants Stadium during their double headlining tour with Guns N' Roses. There is something to be said about the electricity of a live stadium experience, even standing on your tippy toes beyond the 50 yard line from the main stage. All these years later Metallica still knows how to rock out a concert. The performance parts of Through The Never go beyond putting you in the best seats in the house, but I also found the monstrous and intimidating IMAX sound mix to be equally impressive. It doesn't hurt that the band has retained their well honed Rock God chops decades into their career, and deliver a satisfying nearly ninety minutes of heavy metal glory.

Where the feature stumbles is its all too narrow trajectory straight to their loyal core fan base. Quite simply, Metallica takes right to their impressive in-the-round stage and plays. Play they do, but a straightforward performance is pretty much what you get. Do not expect any stage filler from frontman/vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield or anything particularly playful from drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. No introductions, no song title announcements, or acknowledgements the cameras, which are to an extent sorely missed with this being a concert movie. Beyond a few shout outs and select interactions with the crowd, the boys are out to rock, not win you over with personality or get to know them moments. It's obviously the band and award-winning director Nimrod Antal's conscious decision to present the show this way, sans showy shtick, which robs it of basic old school  rock show fun.

To be fair, the band revealed more than enough of themselves during their last big screen outing, 2004's Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. I still consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to interview the band at the press junket for their fascinating in-depth feature documentary (to be the only Metallica fan in the office at the time had its perks). Monster allowed the audience to really get into their inner demons and dirty laundry while they auditioned and subsequently hired bassist Robert Trujillo, and recorded their album St. Anger. It would appear that they felt absolutely no need to open up any further and let the music do the talking this time around. You get no more from them than strict by-the-book Rock God stage etiquette here.

The supernatural narrative elements with Dane DeHaan are a strange inclusion that make less sense as they go along. DeHann plays a young roadie sent on a mission and must persevere through a nightmarish series of encounters and apocalypse worthy riots all the while the band plays on in the local arena. The footage doesn't play off as a straight side story or add enough to make the movie feel like an old school concept music video. Parts where the concert elements synced to and enhanced the narrative were too far and in between. I got excited as the beginnings of a riot scene (with police batons hitting riot shields) that were in time to the opening drums of Wherever I May Roam, but then not only was the song cut off, but the music as a whole was rarely an integral part of the story. I felt it was a big overall missed opportunity within the film.

The 3D aspects were strongest when there were grand stage theatrics to work off of (laser bullets during One, roadies assembling a Lady Justice statue during ...And Justice For All, and the given spectacle of Tesla coils and the go-to concert crowd pleaser that is on-stage pyrotechnics). Trust me, somewhere Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are now off planning their inevitable ultimate KISS IMAX 3D Experience. The pyro is effective, as is the elaborate stage whose floor is comprised of LED screens. The over the top theatrics do make for a better 3D experience given how little the band plays it up for an in-your-face experience to the numerous weighty Steadi-Cams that share the stage with them.

The big numbers were just that: BIG. Show staples like One, Enter Sandman, For Whom The Bell Tolls and Master of Puppets are worth the price of admission alone and during those songs I really wished a press screening was a place I could have yelled, head banged, air drumed along, or whoot whistled and applauded at the conclusion of a song. In retrospect I may have been better off a few rows down and in the mix with the audience members decked out in their well worn concert tees.

I definitely enjoyed Metallica Through The Never as an old school Metallica fan, and was blown away by how great the band looked and sounded in the IMAX 3D format. But I was also a bit taken aback by its approach (or lack thereof) to be an accessible film to anyone outside of the fan base, and some missed opportunities to really shine beyond the actual (albeit incredible) stage performance by dabbling with the use of unnecessary narrative elements. Through The Never is not out to strictly please their MTV-era fans by sticking to Black Album staples, but rather celebrate their hard rocking history with a welcome gift to the headbangers who have been at their side for the long run.

Metallica Through The Never opens on select IMAX 3D screens on September 27th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★½☆☆☆
METALLICA FAN RATING:  ★★★½☆☆
Director: Nimrod Antal
Starring: James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, Dane DeHaan
Screenwriters: Nimrod Antal, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo.
Studio: Picturehouse Entertainment
Rated: R
Running Time: 93 minutes

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