Metropia

This film certainly is grim and grimy to look at but it is interesting and I consider that high praise. It reminds me a bit of Red Spectacles in which Mamoru Oshii has all of his film in black and white with a good film noir look, except for the spectacles, which are of doubtful utility and doubtful provenance. In this film the femme fatal is colorful and most of the rest of the crowded herd is as bland as the scenery.

What is missing here is motivation for the grand sweep of the underlying conspiracy. Like Douglas Adams wrote, "Was it just some bug eyed monster trying to take over the universe for no very good reason." In this case our hero seeks to find out why he is malcontent and why he hears voices and finds answers to both but no real solutions and this is unfortunate, because while his problems are his own the portrayed conspiratorial play has no clear purpose, unless it's just to take over the world to make money, but that is a tired and threadbare plot played out in Washington every day. Ho hum.

But his search and his Orphic trek through the underworld of a Future Europe is interesting and worth looking at. It is also interesting as a computer graphic style using live actors and reprocessing them, apparently, to cartoon proportions. This is something you get used to soon enough and so has no obvious reason, except that it is kind of neat. Perhaps I missed something.