Title: Heavy Metal 2000: Superbit
Region: One
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Action/Animation
Featuring The Voices Of: Michael
Ironside, Julie Strain Eastman, and Billy Idol
Writers: Robert Payne Careen
Based On The Graphic Novel By: Kevin
Eastman, Simon Bisley, and Eric Talbot
Directors: Michael Lemre and Michael
Colowey
Feature length: 88 minutes
Languages: English DTS Digital 5.1
Theatrical Surround Sound and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and Closed
Captions and Spanish, and Portuguese Language Subtitles
Packaging: Keep Case Within A
Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter Stops: 28
Sound: DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical
Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year of DVD Release: 2002
Home Video Distributor: Columbia
TriStar Home Video
MPAA Rating: R
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
Almost twenty years after the original
cult classic "Heavy Metal" was adapted for the big screen came a
sequel, "Heavy Metal 2000." The film was shown theatrically in extreme
limited release at midnight showings, but ultimately made it's premiere on cable
before coming to home video.
"Heavy Metal 2000" is not so
much a sequel as it is a remake of the final story in the original animated
anthology feature. There was once a great race known as the Arrication, who had
discovered the secret to immortality from a certain glowing green ball of energy
that viewers from the first film might remember. The price for immortality is
madness and so at the height of their existence, their race was snuffed out and
the key that could unlock the secret location of the source of immortality was
cast away into space within a rock.
Many thousands of years later, a
starship is parked in the vicinity of an asteroid belt, where some of the crew
has been mining. They discover the long lost glowing key. Immediately one of the
crew grabs a hold of the key, which changes his physicality and drives him mad
with the search for eternal life. Commandeering the starship, he and the
survivors of his crew go out in search of the planet where the key will unlock
the secret to immortality.
Among the worlds they investigate is a
planet known by its inhabitants as Eden that on the star charts is designated as
being F.A.K.K2 and therefore should be devoid of all life. Though the object is
not on that world any longer, it appears that the settlers all have traces of
the gift within their blood. Like vampire bats, they descend upon the planet's
inhabitants and those they do not kill, they take way back aboard the starship
where a mad doctor is able to use their blood to create a serum that gives the
malevolent captain temporary invulnerability. In the wake of the attack, a lone
survivor vows to avenge the death of her people and unwittingly save the
universe in the process.
Featuring the voices of Julie Strain,
Billy Idol, and Michael Ironside, and some new music from some bands of this
era, "Heavy Metal 2000" is a mixed film at best. Compared to the
original, it just doesn't have the same feel and scope. The animation is better
than Saturday morning cartoons, but not up to the level one might expect from a
film based on "Heavy Metal." The CGI effects mixed in with the
traditional animation does add some visual flair to the film, but not enough to
save it from it's own mediocre story.
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has
re-released "Heavy Metal 2000" on DVD as a part of their
“Superbit” collection complete with an anamorphic widescreen transfer of
(1.85:1) on a dual layered disc. The picture looks great with no grain or color
bleeding. Added into the mix is an aggressive and very well mixed new English
DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack. A great English Dolby Digital
5.1 Soundtrack is included and also carries a wonderful surround feel to it.
There are also English Captions and English Closed Captions for the hearing
impaired and Spanish, and Portuguese Language Subtitles are encoded on to the
DVD as options too.
With the majority of the space on the
dual layered disc being used for optimum picture and sound quality, there are no
extra features included on this release. The menus are standard interactive
still frames that are easy to navigate. “Heavy Metal” is expected to debut
on DVD as a “Superbit DVD title in the first quarter of next year. Combined
with this release of “Heavy Metal 2000: Superbit” makes for what will
probably be the best home video presentation of these animated cult sci-fi
films. “Heavy Metal 2000: Superbit” is available on DVD-Video now from
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.