Do you remember Heavy Metal? The magazine that was an anthology of science fiction and fantasy comics/graphic novels? It was the North American version of French magazine Metal Hurlant and some of those stories were made into a film back in 1981 with a connecting theme of a green glowing ball from space. Now the magazine proves to be the inspiration for an anthology television series Each half hour episode is its own story but they are all connected by way of a rock going through space and influencing events.
I do not know if some of the stories in “Metal Hurlant Chronicles” are from the movie as it has been a long time since I have watched it. Each of the stories presented here are taken from the magazine. They are as varying as you could imagine.Each of the episodes is directed by and either written or co-written by Guillaume Lubrano (who also acted as co-producer). Each is a stand-alone episode until the final one which gathers many of those up in yet another overarching and connecting story.
Episodes are 3o minutes each – a little less with the commercial breaks taken out. This makes sure each episode doesn’t overstay its welcome. At times, that length seems to take an eternity. While “short” “Metal Hurlant Chronicles” suffers from…. I hate to say amatuerishness, but it is apparent Guillaume Lubrano is good with producing and storytelling, but as a writer? A director? He’s not bad, but several could also be a heck of a lot better. Some of the twist endings are far too obvious from the first 3 minutes.
That isn’t to say all the episodes are lackluster. Some of the episodes feature a great twist ending or some spectacular action or an interesting story. Some episodes are padded out, some too condensed, but that’s the nature of the format. Overall “Metal Hurlant Chronicles” is well worth watching for fans of science fiction/fantasy television. Some of the recognizable names and faces should help matters as well – James Marsters, Michael Jai White, Rutger Hauer, John Rhys-Davies, and several others.
Shout Factory brings the 12 episode series to Blu-ray in a solid package that features several decent extras. There are a number of “fly on the wall” featurettes looking at the making of individual episodes, seven in all. These are a great look at what goes on in making any sort of television show, not just a science fiction/fantasy anthology series. A few interviews are present, which could have been technically better, but are interesting. Then there are the motion comics for each episode drawn from the original material. Each of these are about 5 minutes each and seem to be edited to fit into the allotted time. Oh, and the main series is presented with English as the language being spoken, but there are also separate French language episodes as well – not and audio option, but actual different episodes.
If you are interested, and you know if you are or not, then check out “Metal Hurlant Chronicles” – and if you’re on the fence about it you might be better off staying there.