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20,000 B.C.: King Yotar (Roldano Lupi) has Metropolis in his iron grip,
and thanks to his many scientific achievements, he has managed to deprive
his people of their free will and make them his willing subjects. But he
has even more and mad ambitions: He wants to make his young son Elmos
(Marietto) whom he has always kept locked away from the public and even
his mother Queen Texen (Liana Orfei) immortal, and not only that, he wants
to inject the braincells of an old sage (Omero Gargano) into his brain to
make him wise instantly.
But enter Obro (Gordon Mitchell), a strongman who could withstand the
death rays guarding the city and who has no problems fighting off Yotar's
palace guard - just to warn Yotar that his end is near - which Yotar's
scientists can only confirm since Metropolis seems to be build atop a
volcano (not the cleverest spot to build a city if you ask me) which is
about to eerupt ... but does Yotar listen ? Nope.
Eventually, Yotar's guards do capture Obro, and Yotar has him fight all
sorts of creatures, who often vastly outnumber him, but Obro stays
victorious throughout ... and eventually, Obro is freed, by none other
than Yotar's father Egon (Furio Meniconi), who persuades Obro to help him
end his son's evil reign by staging terrorist attacks ...
Eventually, Obro stumbles upon Princess Mecede (Bella Cortez), Yotar's
daughter, manages to break the spell Yotar has over her, and before long,
the two fall in love. Together they even try to kill Yotar, but being
Yotar's daughter, Mecede prevents Obro from killing him in the very last
moment, and instead the two are taken prisoner.
But by now, Yotar's mind has already started to crumble as he starts to
see the spirit of his father (whom he has killed in the meantime), and the
sage he wanted to use as braincell donor for his boy dies before he can do
so. And Yotar's city starts to crumble too, as it is destroyed by
earthquakes and the volcano about to break out. in his desperation, Yotar
frees Obro and Mecede and entrusts them with his son Elmos, telling them
to save him from impending doom and guard his life with their lives.
Eventually, Metropolis is destroyed by natural desasers galore, but
somehow, Obro, Mecede and Elmos have made it to safety in time ...
A film that falls between many stools: On one hand it's a peplum, with
all the typical genre elements including the muscleman, the evil king, his
scheming subjects and a beautiful princess who of course falls for the
muscleman. On the other hand though, The Giant of Metropolis also
features quite a number of sci-fi elements one doesn't expect to find in a
peplum, like Metropolis the scientific city, brain transplantation,
attempts to create immortality and the conflict science versus religion.
On the account of sets, costumes and properties, the film also goes two
ways: On one hand, it was obviously made on the cheap, on the other hand,
some of the pseudo-futuristic weapons look just wonderful, and the cheap
sets are so well-filmed they create a dreamlike atmosphere all of their
own.
Now admittedly, the film is not to everybody's taste, but if you like
the cheap and cheesy like I do, chances are you will be richly rewarded.
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