Metallica Through the Never 2013

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: The 13-year-old me would have loved it, and I wouldn't be lying if I said that at times the movie turned me back into that 13-year-old kid. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Metallica, those thrash virtuosos of doom, get the grand 3-D opera they deserve: a godless-apocalypse-meets-Vegas spectacle, full of fireballs and electric chairs. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Despite swooping camera movements and elaborate stagecraft, the film produces detachment rather than immediacy. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This movie is basically "Spinal Tap" minus the jokes. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: A definitive document for anyone who's ever hoisted the devil-horn fingers in metalhead solidarity. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Through The Never plays like The Black Album of concert films: It's enormous, slick, and occasionally rousing, but largely fails to capture the sheer intensity of Metallica's superior '80s work. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: The 3-D concert footage is unassailably cool. Less assured is the occasional storyline threaded through the film. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: An old-school music video stretched to feature length. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Even as someone who finds Metallica's music silly (ditto the movie's incoherent apocalyptic fantasy sequences), I was floored by much of the visual imagination. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Metallica is as fierce and intense as ever, and the greatest hits set the band performs is a barrage of heavy riff-age that captures the band at its most vital. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: It's all very appropriately overblown, and director Antal gives the fireworks as much attention as he does each performer. Read more

Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter: However mindless and heartless it may be, Through the Never succeeds as pure sense-swamping spectacle. Read more

August Brown, Los Angeles Times: The problem is that Antal and Metallica took two different movies - a fine live-band document and a supernatural end-of-days romp - and smashed them together to make both of them more boring. Read more

Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News: It's a damn fine concert movie and a musical thrill ride. Period. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: In the real world, concerts build to a climax, then return for two or three more; on the screen, alas, "Metallica: Through the Never" just kind of peters out. Read more

Jim Farber, New York Daily News: Lets viewers feel like they're sliding up and down the fretboard of Kirk Hammett's guitar, volleying between the cymbals of Lars Ulrich and swallowing spit spewed by singer James Hetfield. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: If you're looking for an orgasmic trip to heavy-metal heaven, this is it. Read more

Eric Hynes, Slate: It's all very handsomely arranged, but even with the concert footage, nothing ever feels live. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: If half an hour of bizarro side-narrative fever dream is the price of admission for a gorgeously lensed, best-seat-in-the-house hour of chugging rock brutality, I'll pay gladly. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Through the Never succeeds as a concert film by serving up enough dazzling visual wizardry and good ol' thrash metal rock to make it a passably engaging experience. Read more

Todd Gilchrist, TheWrap: A sweeping, ambitious take on concert films, "Metallica: Through The Never" works well enough visually, and certainly musically, to make up for its feeble attempt to fictionalize the lengths to which a fan would go for his favorite band. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Arguably, the band has never been as tight as it is with lurking bassist Robert Trujillo; director Nimrod Antal knows exactly where to place his roving camera to sop up every double-pedal drum flurry and wailing solo. Read more

Peter Rugg, Village Voice: The most immersive concert film ever ... Read more