Metropia |
Sweden / Denmark / Norway / Finland • 2009 • 86m •
   • Directed by: Tarik Saleh. • Starring: Vincent Gallo, Juliette Lewis, Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård, Sofia Helin, Shanti Roney, Fares Fares, Fredrik Eddari, Doreen Månsson, Indy Neidell, Joanna Mikolajczyk, Goran Marjanovic. • Music by: Krister Linder.      In the near future, oil reserves are nearly depleted and Europe is connected by series of underground tunnels. While navigating these tunnels, Roger hears voices, one in particular. Seeking a way to rid himself of the voice only leads Roger deeper into a bizarre conspiracy of control - mind and body.
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Review:
The plot is that Roger is working at a dead end job and because he sees a girl he has a crush on that he has only seen in commercials he decides to follow her on a train, which now in 2024 - the Metro systems of all the European countries are interconnected. He then finds a conspiracy going on that the more he uses the certain type of shampoo his crush has advertised, then people will monitor you and have this other office worker talk in your mind at you.
I don't mind dystopian future stories but in this the biggest problem is the dystopian future. So the villain's plan is to use shampoo to take over the world... Okay, how does that work? I know they explain how they can monitor people because their hair is like an antenna but even then that's a bit of a stretch and even if I could suspend my disbelief that due to hair people can be monitored and talked to via radio wave - ridiculous, but maybe that still begs the question of the entire point of this plan working was how well advertised the shampoo is and what if there were people out there who didn't use the shampoo and have some guy talking to them all the time? It begs a lot of questioning including the other question of if Roger is bald then why does he even use the shampoo in the first place? It just doesn't work.
In stark contrast the best thing about this movie is the rather odd and quirky animation. It really is something I have never seen before and could have actually worked in giving the audience a strange feeling about the vision for the future you are about to visit. If I could see more movies by this animation studio, if the premise is better then I would see it as soon as I possibly could.
The other elements of the movie either range from bland or good. I'd consider the acting to be very good and I didn't recognize a single voice from the Skarsgards in this movie nor did I recognize Sofia Helin's either, but even then they do the best with what they're given. The characters on the other hand get really bland. But either way I think this premise in places could have actually worked. If instead it was about something like corruption in the international metro then it would be better then taking over the world with shampoo (I'm sorry I can't get over that!) either way if what you're looking for is a style over substance experience that combines dystopian futures with elements (I said elements!) of a Film Noir then this actually maybe for you.
Review by WakenPayne from the Internet Movie Database.
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