The biggest news in the city tonight is the Metallica concert which is being prepared as night falls, with one fan arriving early so he can stand on top of his car in the empty parking facilities and yell the band's name to the world in general. As he does so, one of their dogsbodies shows up on his skateboard with a paper bag of food, and though he falls off just as he is approaching the doors, landing right in a puddle, he is undeterred, continuing on till he has carried out his task. What Trip (Dane DeHaan) really wants to do as a diehard fan himself is watch the concert uninterrupted for a change, so he is pleased when his boss tells him to head off to the arena and enjoy the show - but this is no ordinary concert.
Essentially Metallica's version of Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same what with each bandmember contributing to the script, Through the Never was nevertheless something different from your average concert movie, one initially designed for a few 3D dates in IMAX cinemas before winding up on disc so the fans could watch it at their leisure, in 3D if they had the capability. Or indeed so they could skip the dramatic parts with Trip and concentrate on the music, which might prove difficult since director Nimród Antal had edited the piece so that it was meant to be watched not unlike an extended, hour-and-a-half long heavy metal video, the plot segments integrated into the tunes.
For some, this was yet more evidence their once-favourite band had totally lost whatever credibility they could lay claim to before the nineties happened and they didn't love them anymore, but the mood of a hugely successful group of millionaires pouring their fortunes - or part of their fortunes, they weren't stupid - into a movie that not so many were going to actively seek out, had a devil may care quality that appealed, even if you were not so much a follower of the music. As in the Zep effort, we were treated to narrative inserts throughout though this was strictly one plot, albeit a rambling one, though there were endeavours to integrate that into the concert as well as the seeming apocalypse outside the stadium affecting what is happening inside.
That said, it wasn't as if the songs were interrupted throughout, for while there were bits where the show supposedly "broke down" we still got a generous amount of the by now middle-aged rockers strutting their stuff on stage. Fans would recognise every number, but if you had but a glancing familiarity with the band then the sounds of the likes of One, Nothing Else Matters and of course Enter Sandman would perhaps tug on your memory more than you might have expected: even for a band which mostly relied on albums and concerts to raise their profile, you could still observe there was something of the greatest hits about this performance. For a collection of blokes who were at this point no spring chickens, they still impressed with technique and energy of a band half their age.
Of course, there are many who will never forgive them for making free music downloads illegal (or something) and thus would gloat at Through the Never's seeming bloated rock star folly, but if you thought it was largely for uncritical adherents of Metallica you may wish to give it a chance. Yes, it was pretentious - never mind how every song is death-obsessed, but the plot was too - yet there was a sense of them amusing themselves that proved infectious, including the fact that this storytelling by committee had conjured something so self-consciously vague on the specifics of what precisely was meant to be going on with Trip. Since we see him take a pill just before his latest errand, is he hallucinating the anarchy we witness next, and if so how does it come to affect the concert? With some excellent props inside (the giant electric chair is especially good), outside complemented them nicely as Trip struggles throughout a riot and apparently the attentions of one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so if it was silly, you also appreciated seeing Metallica splash out for the sheer hell of it.
