Flame Game: Metropolis Sucks

I had rented Metropolis on DVD back when I lived in London, and despite the hype it left me rather cold.

Recently, I saw it again (but without audio - too long to explain) and reached the conclusion that it kinda sucks.

What irritates me the most is character design: it does not fit at all with the environment. Backgrounds and other objects are top-notch computer graphics, while the human and humanoid characters are animated well, sure, but designed and drawn pretty much like they did in 80's anime. Rock wears boots of improbable dimensions, and the investigator's moustache is ludicrous. But the bottom is reached with Duke Red and his burgeois mates: their design is a caricature inspired by the worst communist propaganda, for god's sake!

There is another scene that made me roll my eyes the first time, where very cartoonish fire brigade robots arrive and join together while a very irritating music plays. No, yoko Kanno definitely was not involved.

A partly redeeming aspect is, if I remember well, at least some of the characters have interesting personalities.