Techtite's DVD Reviews!

Heavy Metal 2000:

F.A.K.K.-2

Click Box cover art above, to order this DVD

A Techtite Review

The Film : To diehard, new-age animation fans, there's not enough that can be said about the 1980's R-rated classic, Heavy Metal. I think I said enough about that film in my review elsewhere, so let's just say this is the sequel, and move on. As such a sequel, there is the expected gripe that it is not as great as the original. However, as sequels go, it is still quite acceptable.

The film was made by Julie Strain's husband, Kevin Eastman (who, FYI, is also an editor of the Heavy Metal magazine itself). His love for his wife makes her the lead character throughout the film, and her character's name is even named Julie as well. Julie is a character in a sci-fi/other-world setting, where a man came across a rare artifact that has made him as powerful as he is mad. This madness caused him to massacre practically every member of Julie's planet of Eden, as well as kidnap her sister. Julie is in hot pursuit of this menace, to stop his threat to other alien worlds, save her sister...and exact revenge.

Animation is excellent, which is surprising for a direct-to-video film of this type. Many sequences are even enhanced with computer graphic imagery, a la Titan AE, though unlike that family film, this is a decidedly R-rated feature. Violence is very graphic, and of course Julie Strain, even as an animated character, performs two nude scenes. All this leads to certainly not a boring animated film --and definitely not for kids!-- though still lacks the aspects that made the original such a hit.

Such aspects that made the original so cool can be narrowed down to two things; the multiple, way-different stories, and the incredible soundtrack by numerous bands. The latter omission in this film is no surprise, since the biggest reason why the original film took so long to be released on video, was because of legalities involving that awesome musical score. Allegedly, musicians weren't monetarily given what they expected, leading to several years of the film being forced to remain off video shelves, as the matter of who-the-profits-went-to remained in limbo. For the former gripe --only one story in this sequel-- I can understand why Julie's husband wanted to make her the feature attraction. However, maybe she could have gone through time or something, and been put in multiple storylines, as opposed to just this storyline, which is a little too basic to acceptably last for 88 minutes of film.

Regardless of these two gripes, the film was still a worthwhile watch for this fan of such mature-animation films, and for fans of Julie Strain, it is definitely the feature to look for this year. Even if its theater release was negligible, this is immaterial. Now that it's finally out on DVD, it is able to be viewed by one and all, and many fans of Julie Strain will want to jump at the chance.

The DVD : By far, the best addition to this DVD is the featurette, showing none other than Julie Strain behind the scenes as she went on tour to promote this film. It also gives anecdotes to how she met her husband, Kevin Eastman (editor of Heavy Metal magazine, and the man behind this film), and makes for a very worthwhile featurette to watch.

Another featurette offered involves the voice talent in the film. While this might as well have been part of the first featurette --after all, by itself it is only a little over 3 minutes long-- it is still worthwhile to see Julie and other voice talent as they really got into their characters behind the scenes. Their mannerisms when saying their lines is amusing to see, and probably inspired some of the more intriguing facial expressions in the final movie itself. It's also intriguing to see the faces behind some of the voices, including Michael Ironside (as the main villain in the film) and Billy Idol.

Tech-fans who like behind the scenes info will love the animatic comparisons, where five of the more elaborately animated scenes of the film are shown in their raw cut form. the storyboards for that scene are shown in slide show format, as the actual scene from the film is shown in the bottom-right corner of the screen, to show how these sketches participated in the final product. Separately, there is a 70 second clip of animation tests, narrated by Kevin Eastman, which show how some of the more elaborate fight scenes looked in their rough sketch form.

Fans of Julie Strain will equally appreciate the photo slide show preserved on the disc, of all the posters and pictorials she took for the promotion of this film (a separate slide show of background art in the film, is also offered). That, in addition to the typical addition of the theatrical trailer for this film (among other films), makes for a very complete DVD. The film itself is more than worth seeing at least once, though the Julie Strain featurette makes the DVD a definite purchase to consider, for her fans, as well as fans of the magazine.

	Final Rating : Small Crater. A slight disappointment, though still worthwhile to fans of the genre. "Animated Julie Strain" doesn't make it any harder to watch, either.
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