In a sentenceA gumshoe, a ray gun and the handsomest city, all waiting for a case worth solving
Metropia is a city of skyscrapers so tall the streets below them never quite see daylight, and Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) works the dark end. He is a private detective of the old school, trench coat and ray gun, in a town that has moved on without him. A case brings him up against Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson), a woman who knows more than she says, and sends him to Eyera (Tom Waits), a tired old operator who has seen every racket the city has to offer. Also on the board are the gangster Francis ‘Slugsy’ Xavier (Matt Berry), the formidable Vanzine (Kathryn Hunter) and the cop Roz Dexler (Michelle Rodriguez). Gunn wants the truth. Metropia is built to keep it from him.
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Brad Bird’s animated noir builds a city we would happily get lost in, then loses itself in it. The design and the voices are first-rate; the plot is three films’ worth, and none of them finishes. Decent, and for the interested.
Brad Bird has carried Ray Gunn around for a long time, and we can see why he wanted to make it. A private detective in a retro-futurist city, pulp science fiction wearing a film noir’s hat, drawn rather than shot: it is a world he plainly loves, and for stretches of its 119 minutes we loved it too. The trouble is the story he has put inside it. The city is worth visiting. The case is not worth following, and by the end we had stopped trying.
Paul A. Felix’s Metropia is the main event. The skyscrapers go up out of frame and the light comes down between them in slices, so that half of every street is in shadow, which is what the film’s tagline promises and what it delivers. The cars, the signage, the lamps on the detective’s desk all belong to a future imagined some decades ago, chrome and curves and glowing dials, and the film is consistent about it to the last doorknob. Neysa Bove’s costumes keep Gunn in the one coat while everyone around him dresses for a tomorrow that never came. When the camera climbs a tower or drops down a lift shaft, the place holds together from every angle, and that is harder than it looks.
The voices are well chosen. Sam Rockwell plays Gunn as a man who has heard every line before and is slightly bored to be saying them himself, and it suits the picture. Tom Waits, as Eyera, gives the film its best twenty minutes without appearing to try: every sentence comes out tired, amused and faintly threatening, and we leaned forward whenever he spoke. Scarlett Johansson does the cool, careful thing she does well. Matt Berry’s Slugsy gets the laughs. Kathryn Hunter’s Vanzine is the one voice that sounds dangerous. Bird himself turns up in two small parts, Gunsol and Musker, which is the sort of thing a director does when he is enjoying himself.
Then there is the script, by Bird and Matthew Robbins, and here the film comes apart. There are too many characters, too many threads, and a line of satire about power and the city that is started, dropped, picked up again and never made to mean anything in particular. Arnold Dom (Bobby Cannavale), Barry Vogel (Alan Tudyk) and Lou Blevins (Faruq Tauheed) all arrive with the air of men who matter and then wait around for the plot to need them. Here is what we felt: about an hour in, we were having a good time, and then we tried to say out loud what Gunn was actually looking for and could not, and the good time went quiet. A noir can be confusing; this one is simply crowded.
Michael Giacchino’s score knows exactly what film it is in, brass and brushes and a saxophone that arrives on cue whenever a woman walks in, and it is the most confident element after the design. Darren T. Holmes cuts the action with real clarity, so that we always know where the ray gun is pointing, and there is a dance sequence in zero gravity, bodies turning slowly over the city, that is the best thing in the picture. We would watch it again on its own. The editing is less kind to the dialogue scenes, which go on past the point where we have taken the information in.
Against Bird’s own films this is the odd one out. The Iron Giant (1999) and The Incredibles (2004) each had one clear want at the centre and built everything around it. Ray Gunn has a hero whose want we could not name, in a city where everyone has an agenda and nobody has a reason.
It carries a PG, and children will like the shapes and the shooting and lose the plot quicker than we did, which may be a mercy. Adults who grew up on the pulp covers this is drawn from will get an evening’s pleasure from the furniture. Go for Felix’s city, Waits’s voice and the dance. Do not go expecting to be told, afterwards, what happened.
Bradshaw calls the film a charming, very enjoyable family classic. He especially praises its beautifully designed cityscapes and the zero-gravity dance scene.
Read the full review →Erbland finds the film immersive and inventive, but says its sprawling story and muddled message weaken the result. She especially praises Metropia’s vibrant, tangible design while faulting the underdeveloped tangents and overstuffed plot.
Read the full review →Lodge finds the film technically impressive and energetically entertaining, but less charming and emotionally engaging than it should be. He singles out its richly detailed retro-futurist world-building as its principal strength.
Read the full review →Ide finds the animation stylish but ultimately convoluted and unwieldy, with a laboured, inert screenplay that undermines its potential. She praises the painstaking visual world-building and strikingly coherent design, while criticizing the film’s unclear politics and inconsistent characterization.
Read the full review →Han finds the film bland and forgettable, criticizing its thin characters and underdeveloped themes. She singles out Tom Waits’ weary, witty performance as Eye-Ra as the ensemble’s standout.
Read the full review →The critic calls the film a dazzling, imaginative triumph and says it was worth the long wait. They single out its intricate staging, striking camerawork and lighting, and richly choreographed action for praise.
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Blade RunnerThe detective, the rain and the tall city, with a case you can actually follow.
Mars Express · not reviewed yetFrench animated noir on Mars, tighter and sadder than this, and under ninety minutes.
Who Framed Roger RabbitA drawn gumshoe story that knows exactly what its case is about.
Metropolis · not reviewed yetJapanese retro-futurist city, robots and class, drawn with the same love for height.
The Iron GiantBird at his clearest, one boy, one machine, and not a wasted scene.
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