skjeffrey This is an excellent live concert film of a great band, with a story thrown in. The lighting, sound, performance, editing and effects are all absolutely first class. A lot of thought went into this piece of work.I know Metallica fairly well, having bought their first two albums when they were first released on vinyl in the 1980's. The band has had their ups and downs but this is definitely one of the high points in their career. Metallica likely realized when they conceived the project that live concert footage can be remote and lack intensity, as the viewer doesn't experience the concert energy of seeing the band live. Therefore they added a cinematic story element that has metaphors for the songs. Brilliant idea, even if the story is difficult to understand.The people that give this a film a low rating completely miss the point and misunderstand what this is about. I have no idea how anyone expected a movie in the standard Hollywood sense. It is a piece of work that is different, innovative and effective and I applaud Metallica for the effort. Anyone who enjoys hard rock / heavy metal on any level should see this movie.I attended one of the shows in which some of the filming was done and the live experience was outstanding.

joachimt This is not a movie, its a concert and for someone who is not all that familiar with Metallica this is not a good introduction to the band, it is actually painful to follow the movie. During the first 30 minutes I was praying that the movie would actually start following the protagonist. The concert takes up far too much space in the movie. It is honestly such a shame that the directors and writers couldn't let the band take the "backseat" for once by just featuring the music and protagonist for majority of the movie. There is nothing wrong with the music in the movie, the concert couldn't be more boring to watch. This movie was actually a huge let down seeing as I was looking forward to following the story of the young roadie Trip into his surreal adventure. Instead we just get a glimpse into his adventure because the concert takes up majority of the plot. The cinematography is beautiful especially when following Trip, which once again makes it such a shame the movie doesn't follow him.

RforFilm You can really tell a lot about a person based on the music that they listen too. If you were to go through my friends computer, you would be likely to find Nickelback and Queen. So with that, you can tell that he listens to a lot of rock, which means that he's very laid back, yet a true American conservative, as a lot of the music asks for a lot of freedom in style. If you go into my iPod, you may find a lot of music styles ranging from rock to classical. This would tell you that my pallet is large, and is very open to trying anything once.Going further into my content, you may come across the band known as Metallica. I have only been a fan for about two years, yet I find myself listening to their music a lot (except whenever I work). Yet the other interesting subject is that I don't listen to much heavy Metallica. Why is that so? I think it has to do with how the group tends to blur the lines of what kind of rock they will play. "With Nothing Else Matters" I get a hint of folk while "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is more thrash rock while "Creeping Death" even goes into Christian metal. I love a band that is open to exploring musical talent within their players.So if One Direction and Justin Bieber can get a concert film, then why can't a band as legendary as Metallica get one? Well my wish was finally granted with the bizarre Metallica: Through the Never. It's clear that this group wanted to make a concert film, but a different concert film. Attached to the set list is a narrative story. A story that sends it's audience into hell to the soundtrack of Metallica's greatest hits.As the band is preparing for big arena show, a young roadie named Trip (played by Dane DeHaan) has arrived to both work and enjoy a free gig. In the middle of "For Whom the Bells Toll", he is sent on a mission to pick up a bag that the band needs. He gets in his van, pops a pill and drives off. He starts his decent into madness when he's hit by another car. Getting out of that scrap, he comes across protesters, riot police, and a horseman that's out to kill him. At the same time, real footage of the band continues to play their songs, letting it guide the story of Trip.What have I gotten myself into? Though I'm happy to get a different kind of concert movie, Metallica: Trough the Never was something I was not expecting. It looked like that director Nimród Antal wanted to join the ranks of Pink Floyd's The Wall, by crafting something that may have a lot of deep messages. I just don't know what they were. As beautiful as the narrative scenes were (not to mention another good performance from DeHaan, fresh from Chronicle), they were vague and don't ad much to the real show, Metallica.Unlike the previous One Direction movie, Metallica gets an entire arena with a 360-degree stage. They take every advantage with cool props (they even manage to construct a lady of justice statue and let it crumble all under one song), coffin shaped video screens and even a multimedia floor that allows blood whatever the band needs for their songs. The concert was the best seat in the house to the IMAX group I was attending with as each angle captures the raw talent of the strums of the basest and beats of the drummer. Sit back and enjoy to hardcore music.I'll give this four deadly horsemen out of five. This will probably be a tough sit through for mainstream film audiences, but metal heads and fans of Metallica are going to love this. I hope that someone else can decipher whatever the narrative scenes were trying to get across.

bartenderbilly60 I would have rated this 10 out of 10 if not for two things...First, when the set falls apart and a couple members of the crew get "hurt" it was OBVIOUSLY (so, so, so obvious) a "plot twist" that made me wonder if the whole concert was real or not. Other than that, I would have accepted that this was a live set played to a sell out crowd and that these guys are still rock gods. Now I picture them getting halfway through Master of Puppets and James screaming, "CUT!!!! My lip sync was off on that take."Two, what the hell was the "story" in the cut scenes supposed to be? Here's my synopsis of that... young, heavy metal Leonardo DiCaprio takes a hallucinogen before going out to gas up a truck. No plot. The only parts of the vignette I liked was the doll and when the roadie poured gas all over himself and lit up before getting beaten to a pulp. I was happy because I hoped that part of the movie would end.