History YMMV / Metropolis

* NightmareFuel:
** Evil!Maria is a sterling example of this. Her movements, her expressions, everything about her scream so horribly that this is something that looks human but ''isn't''.
** Her death scene is especially creepy. She laughs maniacally for several minutes as she is burned alive, all the while twisting around in a non-human, demonic fashion.
** One of the few additional special effects from the Moroder version which truly ''improved'' the movie was giving the False Maria GlowingMechanicalEyes when she opens them for the first time. It really helps to make the scene creepier.
** The Moloch Machine sequence and the bit before, as the worker desperately tries to stop the machine going off, seeing the level rising. Then Freder seeing the machine turn into a shrine to Moloch, who consumes a horde of slaves and a procession of black-robed workers. [[HarsherInHindsight It doesn't help]] that the Moloch scene has some unintentional [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Holocaust]] imagery, with workers being killed by ''gas'' and then led into what looks like an enormous ''oven''... And perhaps the most unsettling part is that while the slaves have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the mouth of Moloch, the workers [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror willingly walk into his jaws]].
** Freder's nightmare of the statues of the Seven Deadly Sins coming to life at the command of the GrimReaper playing a bone flute, which then advances on him swinging its scythe.

** The title of this page used to refer to Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}''.

!!''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' by Creator/FritzLang:

!!''Theatre/{{Metropolis}}'' by Joe Brooks:

* AccidentalAesop: The story seems to have a GreenAesop, as it takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where the environment has been destroyed, but, much like WesternAnimation/WallE, it's likely that the setting was only created to allow the plot to happen.
* AdaptationalContextChange: Sort of. The play keeps the line "Let's watch the world go to the devil" from the film, but it now has the workers thinking that Futura herself ''is'' the devil (as opposed to "just" a witch). This means that, as far as they are concerned, the meaning of the line changes from "Let's watch the world burn" to "Watch as I conquer the world."
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: A science-fiction musical based on a German expressionist silent film. This may be why it wasn't much of a hit.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The soundtrack is actually really good. Even the unintentionally funny songs are rather catchy.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Judy Kuhn who, much like Brigitte Helm before her, plays both Maria and her evil impersonator and ''nails'' both of them.
* HarsherInHindsight: John Freeman, the creator of Metropolis, committing suicide and taking his city with him becomes this when - in an especially tragic case of LifeImitatesArt - Joe Brooks, the main creator of this play, commited suicide in 2011 and essentially took Metropolis with him by forbidding others to perform the musical after his death.
* HilariousInHindsight: John Freeman's name, which he just happens to share with [[FanFic/HalfLifeFullLifeConsequences the Saver of Humens.]]
* {{Narm}}:
** Some of the music is a bit too lighthearted for such a dark plot, leading to the wrong kind of SoundtrackDissonance.
** John Freeman can sometimes be so cartoonishly evil that it becomes hard to take him seriously.
** "A double shift will kill him." True, ItMakesSenseInContext, but still...
* PragmaticAdaptation: Steven and Maria are both given more character development and portrayed as less over the top than they were in the 1927 silent film.
* SoBadItsGood: Some of the {{Narm}}-ier moments in the play makes it all the more entertaining.
* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Some fans of the Fritz Lang movie are rather baffled that this version of Joh Fredersen - originally portrayed by TheStoic, clean-shaven, skinny Alfred Abel - is now played by the [[ChewingTheScenery scenery-chewing]], bearded, heavyset Creator/BrianBlessed. This is made even weirder by the fact that Creator/BrianBlessed both looks and acts much like the movie version of Grot, and would probably have been better suited for that character.

** Is the Thin Man really as cruel as he first appears? Is the concern he shows Freder and Joh indicative that EvenEvilHasStandards, or that his SmugSnake persona is [[JerkassFacade mostly an intimidation tactic?]] When he tells Joh that his plan might end up killing countless innocent children, is he just being BrutallyHonest, or is he subtly giving his boss a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech? In the book, does he shut down the Maohee den because it was illegal or because he saw the clear damage it could cause on its users.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The multiple, different cuts of the film in particular have made a lot of the characters open to interpretation. One of the main ones is if Evil Marie/Babylon is a sadistic and souless psychotic machine or a TragicMonster wrought by the madness of Dr. Rotwang who never really had a choice to be anything but what she is, or maybe some combination of both.

** Several viewers have felt that the scene where the False Maria dances around while wearing practically nothing is a lot less sexy than it should be due to Brigitte Helm's rather stiff and mechanical dance moves. They either turn the scene into {{Narm}}, or make it terrifying by plunging it deep down into UnintentionalUncannyValley territory. Though considering that she is an evil robot, the latter reaction might very well be exactly what Lang was going for.

** Several viewers have felt that the scene where the False Maria dances around while wearing practically nothing is a lot less sexy than it should be due to Brigitte Helm's rather stiff and mechanical dance moves. They either turn the scene into {{Narm}}, or make it terrifying by plunging it deep down into UncannyValley territory. Though considering that she is an evil robot, the latter reaction might very well be exactly what Lang was going for.

** Evil!Maria is a sterling example of this. Her movements, her expressions, [[UncannyValley everything about her]] scream so horribly that this is something that looks human but ''isn't''.

* UncannyValley: An invoked example will the robot Maria, who despite looking human moves in a twitchy, insect like way and has odd facial expressions, to convey how different she is from a person.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: In hindsight, this is how many people view Channing Pollock's cut of the film. As each later version brings the film closer to its' original state, it becomes a case of "they changed it back, now it doesn't suck anymore."

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The original reconstructed soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz, which answers a question very few people ever thought to ask: What if Music/RichardWagner wrote a film score? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epuUqdkO47w "Cage of Freedom"]] from the Moroder version. Really, most of the Moroder version's soundtrack is pretty awesome, though YMMV whether it fits the movie or not.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The original reconstructed soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epuUqdkO47w "Cage of Freedom"]] from the Moroder version. Really, most of the Moroder version's soundtrack is pretty awesome, though YMMV whether it fits the movie or not.

** In the new restoration, the thin man.
** Rotwang, for being a classic evil and hammy MadScientist with a neat cybernetic hand and a surprisingly sad backstory.

* FauxSymbolism: The whole 1920s film.
** RuleOfSymbolism, for the most part. You have crucifixion imagery, giant clock face, personified Whore of Babylon, retelling of the Tower of Babel story, animated gargoyles personifying Death and the Seven Deadly Sins, a hidden church in catacombs, an inverted pentagram, talk about "brothers and sisters", the machine as Moloch...
** The Moroder lyrics add a bunch more, with [[Creator/GeorgeOrwell Orwellian]] {{shout out}}s (the edition was timed to release in [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]), references to "[[{{Ouroboros}} infinite circles of snakes eating their own tails]]" and the like.

* StockFootageFailure: The shot of Georgy first reading Josephat's adress card is clearly from later in the film, when he reads the same card in a taxi. (You can see his seated legs in the background, and the blinking lights which don't match the rest of the scene.) Incidentally, this makes it the one Yoshiwara shot to still exist in HD, as that whole subplot was cut by Pollock and only rediscovered later.

** Just about every sci-fi film made in the past 80 years references this movie.

* BetterOnDVD: Way better, especially now that this movie has been found ''nearly complete'' and has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Maria's part in the song ''It's Only Love. Bring On The Night'' has the rather refreshing message "You don't need love to be happy." Of course, it becomes a bit of a BrokenAesop later when she falls in love anyway, but still.

* MisaimedFandom:
** Partly. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler said ''Metropolis'' was one of his favorite films. The writer, Thea von Harbou, was a dedicated Nazi. The director, her husband Fritz Lang, divorced her and moved to Hollywood soon after the Nazi rise to power. To a normal person the movie certainly doesn't have anything supporting the Nazi ideology, unless you take extreme liberties at interpreting the {{A|nAesop}}esop. It's directed against all forms of tyranny, from ruthless capitalism to mob rule. However, in fascist and Nazi wishful thinking fascism and later Nazism had bridged the gap between worker and capitalist renouncing exploitation and decadence on one hand and mob rule and blind lust for destruction on the other. In their eyes this film is a tribute to or a prophecy of that great achievement.
** The film probably still falls under this trope, as it portrays both war and segregation as bad...

* UnnecessaryMakeover: Some viewers felt that The False Maria looked pretty attractive even when she was a robot. That said, the makeover ''is'' necessary InUniverse, [[JustifiedTrope since she has to look like Maria for Joh Fredersen's plan to work.]]

!!''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'' by Creator/OsamuTezuka:

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** When Pero tries to speak to Atlas about the violent nature of humans. Is he speaking out of a genuine desire to avoid bloodshed, or is he simply obeying his programming and doing what he can to ensure that the ruling class continue their decadence at the expense of Atlas and his people.
** Instead of having the robots rise up from their mistreatment, Tima is only simulating that motive. Rather than having the robots break free of slavery she herself is enslaving them to do her bidding and when she sets the various structures to overload she is uncaring of the robots being killed by the surges.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: Whatever you think of the [[TechnologyMarchesOn increasingly dated CGI]], the traditional animation still holds up very well.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Toshiyuki Honda's jazzy and orchestral score works beautifully in the Dieselpunk environment of the film.
* EvilIsSexy: Rock. But that's always part of the course whenever Rock Holmes 'plays' a villain in Tezuka's works.
* FauxSymbolism: There's a nice bit where Tima is standing on the roof in a beam of sunlight, presumably recharging. A bird lands on her shoulder. They cut to another viewpoint, and she looks ''exactly'' like an angel.
* MoralEventHorizon:
** Rock shooting Shunsaku after he tells him he's better than that. Though him previously blowing off Fifi's head may count due to how sympathetic that character was.
** [[spoiler:Atlas]] shooting [[spoiler:Piro]] dead takes away any sympathy and claim to the moral high ground that he had.
* {{Narm}}: Thanks to one of the most egregious examples of SoundtrackDissonance in anime history, when Music/RayCharles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" suddenly starts up during the climax, playing over scenes of [[spoiler:Ziggurat's destruction and a psychotic Tima stalking Kenichi through the crumbling megastructure]], some audiences just cracked up laughing at what was supposed to be the dramatic high point of the film. On the other hand... [[NarmCharm it works]] ''[[NarmCharm because of that said reason]]''.

** The scene where Freder takes a taxi to his father's office might count too. It's the first time the viewer gets a good look at the rich people's city, and it looks glorious, with lots of SceneryPorn.

* FetishRetardant: Several viewers have felt that the scene where the False Maria dances around while wearing practically nothing is a lot less sexy than it should be due to Brigitte Helm's rather stiff and mechanical dance moves. They either turn the scene into {{Narm}}, or make it terrifying by plunging it deep down into UncannyValley territory. Though considering that she is an evil robot, the latter reaction might very well be exactly what Lang was going for.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The original reconstructed soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epuUqdkO47w "Cage of Freedom"]] from the Moroder version.
** Really, most of the Moroder version's soundtrack is pretty awesome, though YMMV whether it fits the movie or not.

* BrokenBase: Opinions on the Moroder version are sharply divided, to say the least. Is it ''the'' way to watch the movie, due to its AllStarCast of musicians? A good alternate take on a classic film, if not as great as the TruerToTheText versions? Decent, but only when it's a real silent film and not a damn music video? Or is it a [[{{Narm}} Narmful]] mess with GratuitousSpecialEffects comparable to [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion the special editions of the original]] Franchise/StarWars trilogy?

* MisaimedFandom: Partly. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler said ''Metropolis'' was one of his favorite films. The writer, Thea von Harbou, was a dedicated Nazi. The director, her husband Fritz Lang, divorced her and moved to Hollywood soon after the Nazi rise to power. To a normal person the movie certainly doesn't have anything supporting the Nazi ideology, unless you take extreme liberties at interpreting the {{A|nAesop}}esop. It's directed against all forms of tyranny, from ruthless capitalism to mob rule. However, in fascist and Nazi wishful thinking fascism and later Nazism had bridged the gap between worker and capitalist renouncing exploitation and decadence on one hand and mob rule and blind lust for destruction on the other. In their eyes this film is a tribute to or a prophecy of that great achievement.

* NightmareFuel: Evil!Maria is a sterling example of this. Her movements, her expressions, [[UncannyValley everything about her]] scream so horribly that this is something that looks human but ''isn't''.

* {{Narm}}: Some of the music is a bit too lighthearted for such a dark plot, leading to the wrong kind of SoundtrackDissonance.