My second sci-fi and overall film of 2025 and a lot better than the poorly aged Things to Come (1936).
Metropolis tells the myth of the Tower of Babel and uses it to paint a ruling class and working class struggle that comes together as effective and believable. Though I didn't enjoy some of the drawn out scenes, especially towards the end, they felt very repetitive but most of the time it is intense and gripping and I was really hooked by it's story and analogy.
What really surprised me was how beautiful it still looks, the upper futuristic city with it's bi-planes flying by and the giant posters to the offices of workers with their elaborate mechanisms that they work with, everything looks great.
A work of this caliber by Germany reminds me of their rather modern sci-fi series Dark. Both never forget the human drama within their stories no matter how crazy the non-human elements get.
I watched the version available on Tubi and while it looked pretty great and the image quality was most of the time clear, i have to say that their is a jazz score all over the movie to account for the "silent" film. It may be distracting to you or it may not.
7.6/10 Definitely worth watch and a pioneering sci-fi film, it's so old that the movie uses the word "Machine-Man" instead of robot!
There’s also a version out there that has cult of Luna’s vertikal albums for a score!
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: