IR HE Review: METALOCALYPSE - ARMY OF THE DOOMSTAR [Warner Bros Home Entertainment]
Maintaining the essence of character and tone is important but jumping too far ahead of the sweep can sometimes disengage the audience. With "Metalocalypse", it is interesting play because alot of what the normal kind of story/episode would do is appeal purely to the Adult Swim audience which helps in textures of abstraction but also tenets of psychological humor vs. horror. With the series wrap-up film "Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar", it gets reflective in a very subversive way. The series always point to the end of days without it not actually happening. The point of this movie, after its set up, is to show this, even if our characters can't see the road to redemption in its path. The balance, which is interesting here, is that creator Brendon Small does much of the music and the songs as he always has but increases the cinematic quotient exponentially. But here with a bigger canvas, help from his heavy metal buds and some orchestration of his score by the one and only Bear McCreary, it opens up the vistas a little more. Even aspects that weren't quite noticed initially are reflected on in the featurette "Inside The Metal Curtain" such as the use of ink in water to create some of the cloud backgrounds which adds an eerie perspective to the third act.
The influence of "Heavy Metal" and Ralph Bakshi are very much felt and completely alluded (in violence for sure, though there is no nudity). The context of cyberpunk anime and of course a little bit of "Lord Of The RIngs" animation are there for sure as well. Of course the lead of Nathan is Small as it always has been but he gets heavy hitters pushing on either side with Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell as well as some deep cut cameos like Kirk Hammett of Metallica. The animated film works on all levels especially when it goes into its montage moments with the heavy metal soundtrack pulsating through it. It brings back to mind exactly that "Heavy Metal" movie feel or animated music videos that used to be the pinnacle in the late 80s/early 90s. It is in these moments that "Army Of The Doomstar" really rocks because it is given a wider canvas to play on. In the featurette, they even add the aspect of the fact that the animations are very slightly moving images that they added rain, embers, fog, etc. which are almost homages to old samurai movies. It creates a cinematic superlative that really lifts the material, even though the characters themselves as the band many times simply find themselves as saviors (save for Nathan) just because. That is why the reflection at the end in many ways reflects the creator creating almost a fan letter to those who followed him. B+
By Tim Wassberg
