Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Better Late Then Never

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Honestly I'm not sure why i decided to watch this. It really just looked odd and different for me. Although I would say that the film gave an effort, and was fully realized, I don't think it aged very well. The animation was fine, but I felt the early 80's pop here. A great film is timeless, but this felt like you had to have a time machine in order to fully appreciate.

It's hard to even describe this movie seeing as how it's eight different segments only loosely related. I still enjoyed it, even though I have to admit it isn't for all tastes. It has more nudity than any other animated film I've ever seen. If you're turned off by that stuff, you should skip this. I actually still enjoyed the animation very much and liked how it was different animators contributing to one big movie. Anthology films can be fun, if only because we're probably more used to seeing short films and stories like episodes of a TV show. John Candy's voice really shined in this. If the first two parts counted as segments, wouldn't the last one? My favorite is the last segment which is also the longest. Even though Taarna doesn't have any dialogue, she really does develop an interesting personality. Well, it also helps that she's freaking beautiful. She wears skimpy clothes, but we first see her naked, so that's actually an improvement. Another great part was "Captain Sternn" simply because it was the funniest and must have been made by someone who worked in Mad magazine. "Harry Canyon" is probably my least favorite part as there's nothing that unique about it. It's great to know the film gets better. Yes, it's sexual but artsy for me. I'm pretty sure the ending implies that Taarna has been reincarnated. ***

Yeah I know well that the legend John Candy is in this but, I think this movie isn't one of his bests. There doesn't seem to be a really good plot to actually get glued into and the characters just aren't that interesting. I would've rather to have seen more action and take the story seriously! I still don't understand why this movie deserved four awards like, I feel that it doesn't deserve anything! I feel like it deserves absolutely nothing! Bad story line but boring and dull also. Don't watch it as it can be a waste of your time!

I just don't get it. Maybe it was the fact that so many talented people were involved. Perhaps it was just unusual to have a major release of an animated film with this kind of content. Or maybe it just has something to do with the fact that for the first time an animated film brought about the elements of a bawdy comic book and played it out for the mentality of 13 year-old boys.Whatever the reasons for the success of 'Heavy Metal', I'm afraid I just don't get it. I see the images, I see some original writing in spots, I see the potential for a cult classic. But, for me, 'Heavy Metal' looks dated, silly, disjointed and out of all eight stories I find myself defending only two.I found 'The Legend of Tarrna' (the last one) to be a true original. Sure, it seems sexist and Tarrna is a complete male fantasy but I found it to be strikingly original in its visual imagination. She comes out of the sky riding a giant condor and carrying a sword. She walks into the bar, is hit on by three slobbering goons and you can fill in the rest. This well animated scene owes more than a little to the Clint Eastwood westerns (Did I say a little? She even squints her eyes). I caught myself smiling at this scene, that's why I liked it.I have to admit that 'So Beautiful, So Dangerous' is curiously funny. An alien spacecraft breaks into the Pentagon and kidnaps a secretary. She is kidnapped by a trio of robots, one of whom has an over-inflated libido in it's programming. I wasn't all that keen on this segment as a whole but I have to admit a certain admiration for any scene that opens with a robot and a naked woman in bed after sex and ends with the line: 'Okay, but I want a Jewish wedding'.The rest is pretty routine. I liked where 'Harry Canyan' was going but it seemed to be over before it began. 'Den', a story about a geek who gets turned into a giant blue hulk is little more than a prepubescent fantasy. 'Captain Sternn' had some fun dialogue before disintegrating into predictability. 'B-17' the disturbing story of a plane being taken over by the living dead is a matter of taste (but not mine). The framing material about a sickly green orb that tells these stories to a frightened girl is just plain baffling.'Heavy Metal' is based on a popular behind-the-counter comic book that would make Bob Guiccione blush. The movie isn't anywhere near the graphic level of that book but to fans of this movie that hardly matters. I haven't a clue what makes this film so popular. I find chunk-style movies like this lacking almost by definition. It has it's moments, it fills it's quotient of T&A and graphic violence, but I wasn't all that impressed.Ratings (out of four): 'Soft Landing'- *½; 'Grimandi' - **; 'Harry Canyan' - **½; 'Den' - **; 'Captain Sternn' - **½; 'B-17' - *; 'So Beautiful, So Dangerous' - ***; 'The Legend of Tarrna' - ***.