Metallica: Through the Never

Remember the earlier days of IMAX, before they put real wide release movies in the format? Back when IMAX screens rarely offered more than short documentaries or slight, simplistic pieces of fiction, where the point was less about making a full coherent work than just showing cool stuff on a really, really big screen? I’m not sure to what extent or even if such features are shown anymore, outside of maybe museums, but the same kind of approach seems to have been taken for Metallica: Through the Never, the new concert odyssey from the heavy metal band.

Mainly, it’s a concert film, and shorter than a typical rock concert filmed or not. But it makes up for that by containing possibly the greatest concert footage ever recorded. All the typical live shots of the band are cut rapidly but seamlessly with wider shots of the stage or crowd from all different angles, as well as more intimate views of each band member, ecstatic fans, pyrotechnics and other stage effects, and close-ups on the band's instruments as their arms and fingers do their work. And of course, Metallica’s on fire, playing at a very high level even in their middle age. I’m not entirely sure if it’s like any other concert film just brought to another level by an IMAX screen, or if it goes above and beyond the normal tropes of live performances. But it’s awesome to behold. And the chosen setlist consists of many of the band’s classics (though to my personal chagrin, the softer ballad “Nothing Else Matters,” loved by many but too sappy for me, also made it in, but oh well).

But where the project differs from the standard concert flick is that it also includes a side plot that’s not simply backstage footage, or even really involving the band at all. No, it’s instead a kinetic urban combat fantasy tale, where a young silent roadie (Dane DeHaan) and his living doll search for a broken down tour truck in the unnamed city the band is playing. On his trek, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between police and a violent mob, and runs afoul of the latter’s horse-riding, gasmask-wearing, magic sledgehammer-wielding leader.

Yeah, pretty weird. It reminded me a little of The Song Remains the Same—the 1976 Led Zeppelin picture where the extended live performances drifted off into trippy vignettes—only more amped up on the action movie elements. And while Zeppelin’s vignettes were clearly separate from the concert and other footage, the more cinematic stuff here seems to exist concurrently with the Metallica concert we’re seeing, as the two collide in destructive fashion later in the picture. It’s pointless to try making sense of it all, as the movie itself doesn’t even attempt to explain. It’s better to just sit back and admire the imagery.

It, too, is cool to see on a giant screen. But really, Through the Never’s appeal depends on whether or not the viewer likes Metallica. Me? I would have paid for a ticket just for a straight-up concert film. There’s nothing quite like the loudness or excitement of being at a live concert, but if that’s out of your price range, this isn’t a bad way to compensate. You might even (and from my concert-going experience, probably will) get a better view than most people in an arena.