Remember the days of what feels like the early 2000s when there seemed to be so many bands formed by young kids in high school. They were inspired by people such as the Jonas Brothers or Jack Black in School of Rock and every school would have its version of a band competition? Now imagine if that time existed but those bands being formed were metal bands? Kids inspired by love, death, and Metallica. That is what Netflix’s new film Metal Lords is about, and you know what? It is exactly what you’d expect a Netflix film with little to no promotion to be like. Mediocre.
Metal Lords follows Kevin (Jaeden Martell) and Hunter (Adrian Greensmith), two best friends who are in love with the genre of metal music. So much so that they look down upon all other genres. One day, Hunter gets into an altercation with another band at school and is challenged by them to a battle of the bands’ competition. Now Hunter and Kevin must put the work in to bring metal to a new generation and show their peers just how much they love it. The problem? Hunter is actually a terrible person who is awful to those closest to him and continually tries to tear them down. That is the giant problem with this film, Hunter is such an unlikable character that he loses the audience far earlier than the filmmakers expected and when he tries to win them back, we are already too far gone. These two characters are akin to Seth and Evan from Superbad. Best friends who are fun to follow, but it eventually just becomes Jonah Hill continually berating Michael Cera who is so innocent that you question how they could’ve put up with this for so long. Hunter is even worse to the point where I just found it annoying at the heavy lifting Kevin was doing to try and get me back on board.
Metal Lords comes to us courtesy of David Benioff and D. B. Weiss who I still haven’t forgiven for the Game of Thrones finale. Remember when they rushed that finale so that they could start working on Star Wars and then saw how much a fandom hated them for half-assing something so they ran from Star Wars to get a $200 million dollar deal at Netflix? This is what they did with that money. They made a teen comedy-drama about the greatness of metal music that only proves to us that it is just as good as today’s pop hits by Ed Sheeran. Is there some emotional complexity here? Yes. The journey Kevin goes on to come into his own as a person when he decides to let his friend go is captivating. So much so that you are yelling at the screen when he inevitably decides to take him back. On top of that, the music is really great here. The performance by the band at the competition is captivating and you can’t help but bop your head to the tunes of Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath.
As far as the acting goes, it is pretty up to snuff. Jaeden Martell who you know as Billy from the IT films is excellent here as Kevin. He is our main character who carries us through this journey and the torment we feel from Hunter and the anger we get towards him all come from how much we care for Kevin. We know he is capable and more deserving of better friends than what Hunter can offer and that is due to Jaeden’s performance. Adrian Greensmith as Hunter is very good as this character, I just hated the character who never really gets taken to task for his actions. I am not sure the filmmakers intended for us to dislike Hunter this much and it partly has to do unfortunately with Adrian’s performance. You can only be annoyed so much. A good standout however is Isis Hainsworth as Emily. She also goes on this emotional journey with Kevin, but she also knows how to have a little fun with her character. Her tantrum at the beginning of this film is exceptional. She shed a little levity on what would mostly be a dour film.
Metal Lords is a perfectly serviceable film. It is entertaining and gets you in and out in under 100 minutes, but you won’t remember it too long after. Did it make me like metal music? I would treat it kind of like professional wrestling. I see it and understand the appeal behind it, but you could never catch me dead at a live showing of it. Just not for me, much like Metal Lords.