User Reviews

I have not seen the re-release, but the original 1927 films is one of the crowning achievements of sci-fi movies. The original is definitely not for the faint of heart, though, as it is a very long movie with no sound, no music, and no colours.

The director’s dedication and the excellent work of the entire crew speak for themselves. It is a film worthy of a standing ovation, especially considering it was made so early in cinema history.

Would a remake be worth it? Although I usually enjoy slow, long films, 'Metropolis' creates a contradiction for me: at times it feels heavy, even when its rhythm becomes frantic. That combination results in an intense experience that demands patience but rewards you with a visual force that’s hard to match. Its greatest strength, in my opinion, lies in its sets. The city it presents—a colossal urban machine, impossible towers, and spaces I’d describe as liminal—remains astonishing even decades later. A visual and aesthetic achievement that transcends the techniques of its time and turns the film into a true dystopia. The performances are legendary within German Expressionism: aggressive gestures, movements bordering on theatricality. A style that works within the film’s overall tone, though at times—especially in the fight scenes—the choreography becomes noticeable. Still, the performers’ energy keeps the dramatic tension alive. The music, intense and relentless, amplifies the epic personality of the story, but listening to it for more than two hours can become overwhelming. It follows every image and elevates entire sequences. At its core beats a story of class conflict: workers forced into harsh conditions, carrying the full weight of comfort enjoyed by those above. A critique of ultracapitalism, built with clarity and minimal yet unmistakable symbolism. The film offers a devastating portrait of labor dehumanization—more than enough reason to seek balance and justice in the face of power structures that devour people. 'Metropolis' remains an unforgettable classic. Not because it’s simply impactful, but because its technical vision is nearly unrepeatable. A hypothetical remake would be interesting only from a visual standpoint, in my opinion—to see how its city would be reinterpreted in the digital age. But in terms of essence, spirit, and impact, the original remains a peak that’s incredibly difficult to reach. Spanish: ¿Valdría la pena un remake? Aunque suelo disfrutar del cine lento y largo, 'Metrópolis' me provoca una contradicción: a veces se llega a sentir pesada, incluso cuando su ritmo se convierte en algo frenético. Esa combinación crea una experiencia intensa, que exige algo de paciencia pero recompensa con una fuerza visual difícil de igualar. Su mayor virtud, en mi opinión, reside en los escenarios. La ciudad que presenta -una colosal maquinaria urbana, torres imposibles y espacios que consideraría liminales- siendo motivo de aplauso décadas después. Un logro visual y estético que trasciende la técnica de su tiempo y convierte la obra en una distopía. Las actuaciones son legendarias dentro del expresionismo alemán: gestos agresivos, movimientos que rozan la teatralidad. Un estilo que funciona dentro del tono general, aunque por momentos, especialmente en las escenas de peleas, la coreografía se hace notar. Pero todavía, la energía interpretativa mantiene viva la tensión dramática. La música, intensa y sin pausa, potencia la personalidad épica del relato, pero escucharla durante más de dos horas puede llegar a saturar. Persigue cada imagen y eleva secuencias completas. Late una historia sobre enfrentamiento de clases: trabajadores sometidos a condiciones precarias que sostienen con todo su esfuerzo, el bienestar de quienes habitan los mandamases. La crítica al ultracapitalismo, construida con claridad y una simbología mínima pero completamente entendible. El filme ofrece un retrato devastador de la deshumanización laboral; motivos de sobra para buscar equilibrio y justicia frente a estructuras de poder que los devoran. 'Metrópolis' permanece como un clásico inolvidable. No porque sea impactante, sino porque su visión técnica sigue siendo casi irrepetible. Un hipotético remake sería interesante solo desde la perspectiva visual en mi opinión: ver cómo se reinterpretaría su ciudad en la era digital. Pero en términos de esencia, espíritu e impacto, el original sigue siendo una cima que difícilmente puede alcanzarse.

The re-release of Metropolis is an absolute treat for film lovers. Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic looks better than ever with its stunning restoration. The added footage fills in gaps that make the story feel more complete, bringing new life to its themes of class conflict, industrialization, and human **** visuals are mind-blowing, even by today’s standards. Those towering cityscapes and intricate machines are sharper and more vivid, making it easier to appreciate just how ahead of its time this film was. The famous robot Maria? Still as cool and creepy as **** updated score takes things to another level, perfectly matching the action and emotions on screen. It’s lush, dramatic, and pulls you right into this dystopian world.What’s really striking is how Metropolis still feels so relevant. Its message about the need for understanding between the powerful and the workers hits home, especially in a world where technology keeps changing how we live and work.Whether you’re a first-timer or a long-time fan, this re-release is worth watching. It’s a classic that still inspires, and this version feels like the best way to experience it. Don’t miss it!

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Fritz Lang's science fiction godfather has suffered through several levels of re-cut hell over the past hundred years. Slashed by nearly an hour for its original western release, trimmed further by **** censors in 1936, color tinted and re-edited in the '80s (with a modern rock soundtrack) by Giorgio Moroder, then painstakingly restored for Blu-Ray in 2010, using lost footage from an old print in Buenos Aires. Up until now, my entire memory of the film comes from the Moroder version, which didn't make much sense from a story perspective but always wowed me with its wild, futuristic visions, ambitious special effects and expansive set designs. The restored version offers improvement in both respects. Now cast in gorgeous monochrome, as intended, the art direction is even more stunning. New scenes and high-resolution scans give us fresh opportunities to admire the sprawling city, to really soak up the vast scale of Lang's concept. And the plot, naïve and airy as it may be, actually moves in sensible directions now. It's incredibly slow moving and drawn-out, sure, overloaded with long shots of talking heads (which seems unnecessary for a silent picture) but at least it's headed somewhere. As a long-time fan of the film, I'm glad to have finally seen the full thing. Metropolis is an iconic marvel, an artistic triumph that's, somehow, just as hypnotic now as it must've been in post-WWI Germany. That said, wading through the scenes without some sort of huge, dazzling art deco set piece, well, it can feel like work. I needed four sittings to get through this two-and-a-half hour behemoth, and I was already personally invested before it hit my media shelf. First-timers will, no doubt, find it smothering. Deeply influential as a production, astounding as a purely visual showpiece, but critically flawed as a whole. Now excuse me while I revisit a few tunes from the 1984 release.

Igual que Tiempos Modernos, de Charles Chaplin, puso sobre la mesa los riesgos del totalitarismo y la mecanización. Una de las indispensables del cine mudo.

An unmitigated landmark for the science fiction genre and a triumph for the filmic medium in general, Fritz Lang's 1927 opus "Metropolis" thrives on breathtaking production design and visual effects, as well as some potent thematics and an imaginative central tension. Though I think, for me, things do get a tad indulgent here and there, with a few moments (particularly within the some of the performances) taking me out of the experience overall, I'm still grateful to even be able to see this in its entirety. The amount of trouble the restorers went through to bring this to us is still absolutely astounding to me. For that reason alone, I'd say it's more than worth a watch. Sure helps that this is quite an impressive visual feat to behold as well.

What is to say about Metropolis that hasn't been said already? For me, probably very little. Metropolis is an awe-inspiring and influential masterpiece of the sci-fi genre, and one of the best movies I have seen in recent memory. Metropolis perfectly demonstrates the artistic vision of director Fritz Lang. Lang was a fine and intelligent director, and Metropolis shows this loud and clear as Lang's direction is superb. The film is very rarely boring to me, both the pace and length were well-judged in my view, and while the message may seem muddled to some people for others including me perhaps it is relevant and even powerful. The music is haunting, beautiful and evocative, the story really impresses with its originality and the acting is expressive, although silent the facial expressions and gestures speak volumes. The best part about Metropolis and what resonates with me are the visuals, the cinematography is fluid same with the lighting while the costumes and effects are wonderful, but the real revelations are the city landscapes and settings which are gorgeous. All in all, a brilliant film and an influential film not only of the genre but of cinema itself. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I don`t know,but i just can`t like this film.I`m not a person,who hate old films.I like them very much,however ,i think ,this one is out of time

I thought this was a good movie, but it was not like that, anyway, the story was boring and I felt weird to see it

One of the most visually appealing silent films I know. This is probably one of the greatest silent films ever made and one of the great classics of cinema before the Second World War. It is amazing how, in a sense, it is still up to date and influencing more recent films ("Elysium" is the name that occurs to me more quickly now because I saw it recently, but there are more). Its futuristic look has influenced most of the sci-fi films, such as "Star Wars", "Star Trek", the animated series "Futurama" and even the cartoon "The Jetsons". Made with great quality, it is a film whose elegant cinematography already reminds us of the look of the first spoken films, in the thirties. There is some academic debate about whether this film belongs to the expressionist movement or not. Personally, I think there are clear expressionist influences on the story told, where paranoia and mistrust towards authority are constant, but visually, they are no longer expressionist. The story told is deeply dystopian and mixes futuristic elements with biblical allusions: Metropolis is a huge futuristic city run by one man: Johann Fredersen, who lives in the New Tower of Babel. However, it is supported by an immense number of workers who, in the depths, operate a series of machines for hours on end, in inhuman conditions. Freder, the son of Johann Fredersen, decides to try to put an end to this injustice. In the film, in addition to the good performances of actors such as Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Brigitte Helm, production values ​​stand out. The music is excellent and matches the film perfectly; the costumes are good and the sets, especially, are great. The special and visual effects are good and work very well. The scene of the creation of the Woman Machine is particularly stunning. Cinematography uses a lot of light and shadow and the film is very visually pleasing, one of the most pleasant in silent cinema, in my opinion.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I saw the 2008 fully restored 2 hour 45 minute version on TCM recently. A triumph of production design. Amazing, towering sets, populated by a cast of literally thousands, are the primary reasons for watching this movie. The silly para Marxist storyline, and near hyper comical acting bogs down this handsome production. That's why I gave it only a 5.

Una película de visualización OBLIGATORIA para todo aquel que ame el cine independiente del género de preferencia, es totalmente adelantada a su época y es visual y auditivamente una delicia, imperdible.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Lang's time traveling to the dystopian future is the evergreen masterpiece that is still impenetrable, after a century later. Metropolis Lang's time traveling to the dystopian future is the evergreen masterpiece that is still impenetrable, after a century later. Let's work our way up to the gist or the concept of the feature starting from the details. Such rich details is something that is only seen on rare gem-like Disney animation where an entire new imaginative world is created that is much more hip and happening than ours. And in here the concept being simply a head or tail case, the details are immensely impressive. Now to write these words is one thing and to implement it on set is another. But Lang's set pieces are equally large as its concept is. And with huge crew, beautiful large set pieces and stunning production design, Lang gives you the time of your life. And with a head start like such from the concept, the expectations of the film increases to a whole new level, and with a layered narrative and a buoyant script, the characters keeps giving us back the reasons and material to not even spare a time to blink. Especially the second half of this symphony, that keeps you at the brisk of your emotions through exhilarating chase sequences, cut throat politics, morality conflicts, family drama and electrifying attraction towards each other. It surely is a cinema for life. Abel as the puppeteer losing its control is a force to be reckoned with that is challenged by his son Frohlich itself. But the real game changer and heart of this cold mechanical world is Helm (she is splendid as both the evil twin and the heartwarming love interest) in command, from her looks to her body language, the entire feature is dependent on her vocab. Metropolis is an awe-inspiring civilised stable city that preaches its choirs, from the viewers to the makers itself.

this is actually pretty good . .

Another great film to review. This time, we're going under the fame on Metropolis which is actually kinda similar at first though. Then I realized it's an adventure.... a great one though.

In 1927, during one of the harshest times in recent history, German Expressionist director Fritz Lang made Metropolis. Metropolis is one of the most historically important films ever made, because it was an artistic German Expressionist masterpiece, that boldly challenged the **** Party, and still has a massive impact on cinema today. It was an angry film pointed at its geographical time and place, but it also offered some major positives for the industry. Lang used several techniques that have become recognized as key elements of German Expressionism, most noticeably lighting. A good example of this was the scene that introduces Maria for the first time, multiple times contrasting lighting techniques were used to highlight particular characters. This technique gave Maria an angelic look, when she spoke, as well as highlighting the reactions of particular characters. Another element of german expressionism was. These lighting techniques were also used often with the presence of the character Rotwang, with this character various lighting techniques were used to make his rooms darker, and give Rotwang large shadows. Just by lighting techniques Lang told the audience how to feel about certain characters, something many filmmakers have since copied. These lighting techniques are great examples of German Expressionism, but they also help shape the narrative, and tone of the film. The narrative of Metropolis leans in the direction of formalist, because it very heavily promotes a thematic point, has a scrambled sense of time, and is occasionally intruded with the director’s style. The film’s narrative has very clear religious parallels and a clear message, against the **** Party, and their regime. At a time when the amount of propaganda films were rising, Metropolis was able to send a message with clever subtlety. The evidence that Lang was angry with the, at the time, new **** Party is evident through the religious parallels, especially with Israel. It’s no secret how the **** felt about members of the Hebrew religion, and the parallels often connected to the Hebrew religion. The catacomb scene in the film contains the best examples of this as the candles behind Maria resemble a menorah, the iconic candle that the Hebrew religion celebrates Hanukkah with. Maria has a very close association with the woman in Revelation 12, it seems relevant to point out that in the catacomb scene the candles behind Maria, may represent the crown of twelve stars. The religious parallels combined with the well known fact that Fritz Lang didn’t like the **** Party, most likely because of his Jewish heritage, help reinforce that Metropolis was film with an angry **** message. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Metropolis is the powerfully real way that Lang showed us his apocalyptic vision. The world is scary, because it’s realistic, and powerful, because it resembled an interpretation of the world the **** preached about creating. The evidence that the world resembled a **** vision are, again, in the religious parallels, this time with the story of Exodus. The film is clear that the world has three divisions, the hand (the egyptian slaves/the poor), the brain (the pharoah/Joh Frederson), and the heart (Freder/Moses), it is noteworthy that the story of Exodus is about Hebrew liberation. The film was powerful, because of it’s message, but is also one of the most influential of the classical Science Fiction films, and still has a massive impact on films today. Visually the Metropolis was made to be a beautiful paradox that is magnificent, yet equally hellish, this look has been copied numerous times throughout the years. Examples of this are in Blade Runner, Dark City, Escape From New York, and the Matrix. The dark yet beautiful apocalyptic world would become a staple of futuristic Science Fiction films. Another visual staple of Metropolis was the look of the citizens, specifically the poor, who are a bland, uniform set of people, beaten to submission. This has been used in films like THX 1138, and more recently films like Snowpiercer, and the Hunger Games. Another impactful aspect of the film is Rotwang’s metal hand, which has been copied famously in Dr. Strangelove, and Star Wars. There are many more things that Metropolis has inspired over the years, these are many more things that Metropolis has inspired over the years, these examples were just a few examples of the impact of Metropolis. Regardless of one’s opinion toward the film itself, it seems self-evident that Metropolis remains one of film’s shining moments, as proof that art can reflect and even criticize culture. Metropolis also remains timeless, because it offers viewers the opportunity to enter the mindset of a skeptical German during the rise of **** power. Metropolis’ footprint still heavily affects films today, that, and considering the message’s enduring relevance, make Metropolis one of the most influential films of all time.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis is a thrilling masterpiece and definitely one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever made.With meaningful moments,good looking visuals,good performances and a great delivered message, this movie is epic!

It is incredible to imagine someone doing such a movie with little technology and right at the beginning of cinema history. I would have been deeply amazed if I were to watch it when it premiered. This movie makes me even more incredulous to watch most of the crap which has been released in the past decade, shameful. The only aspect that makes me don't want to give it a 10 is the usage of some silly archetypes, such as the malefic villain or the ultra-naive main character. This is the same case when it comes to literature, characters in real life are much more likely to be dialectic than dichotomic.

The ultimate science fiction film that fascinates today. Fritz Lang has created an eternal masterpiece. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting movie, and I can see why it gained high praise for it's time... But the 1980s soundtrack RUINED the movie! The Music is completely out of place and has no actually connection of mood or ANYTHING to any part of the movie. This movie would be MUCH better if it had an orchestral soundtrack. Very random in terms of scene switching, too fast paced.

Timeless storytelling that transcends generations and countries. You can see many influences from novels of that era. Even if the era is 86 years ago. Many themes are presented with the deadly sins. The building of the pyramids are even touched on. The good and evil shown with the false Maria and true Maria. This movie is worth a watching even if it is for respect for the filmmakers who surely never expected people to be watching this film so many years in the future, and possibly the future they were dreaming of when creating this masterpiece.

Out of admiration and reverence, Fritz Lang

One of the most influential movies ever made,and a must-see.Unfortunately,while the film is visually stunning,it's a bit weak in the story department, which keeps me from giving it a 10.

The single most influential film in history. Modern sci-fi would not even exist if it wasnt for this masterpiece. The worlds look amazing and completely unique. Camera work and editing is creative and 1 of a kind. Brigitte Helm could have one of the best female performances of all time, her facial expressions as the machine are insane. One of the best films of all time no contest. If you say otherwise your mentally incapable of viewing film. People said this movie is "to formulaic". THATS BECAUSE IT CREATED THE FORMULA! It was 1927 for goodness sake. The first of it's kind. I watched it again now in 2011 and it still creates emotional impact on the viewer. Not only one of the best films of all time, one of the greatest pieces of art of all time.

It's definitely the best silent film ever crafted, and arguably one of the best movies of all time. Silent films usually try to avoid complex plot and multiple storylines because of the limitations of the medium, but Fritz Lang succeeds in connecting all of the loose ends in his monumental vision to produce one of the greatest stories to grace the silver screen.