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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

I'll tell you why so serious

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I've gotta start by saying that I've got nothing against Sam Dunn or his intention to approach metal-heads and non metal-heads (in fact I really enjoyed his first release). However, There are plenty of areas in which this film fails to reach its objective.The first and most obvious flaw is that this movie is not really about how the world assumes and adapts heavy metal to a wide variety of cultural, demographic, economic and geographic situations, but rather spends a vast amount of time capturing the way in which geographically separate nations digest American and British Heavy Metal bands.The second big flaw of this film is the lack of prior info and investigation on local metal that is evident when Sam arrives to foreign lands, which is why he decides to twist the local metal into something he is more likely to recognize. Seriously: Marty Friedman(former Megadeth) interviewed in Japan? Sepultura (probably the most North-Americanized band in south America) as the only Brazilian exponent? Would't standing in front of and interviewing 'Angra' members be a good reason to feature some of their music (Brazil's most locally influenced and internationally acclaimed band)?The third, and probably biggest blunder, was the election of the places he decided to visit. Israel? India? There is so much innovation and interesting things to show in Easten Europe. Argentina has a huge reputation and respect all across America(not north America, but America) for breeding top-class Heavy Metal bands that do not respond to North American Metal trends and refuse recording in English while still maintaining a huge die-hard fan base. Mexico is a huge Metropoli that is constantly releasing socially aimed thrash/death at its finest.

Loved it. No reason to see any flaws because it makes no claim that it cannot hold up. It's purpose to reveal the metal movement in places that you might be surprised it exists. Very moving, insightful and never overbearing. This is not meant to convert but rather to impress upon the free that there are people that exist that will do anything to have their voice heard, that they feel and express through music. Just happens in this case to be metal. Probably no surprise to most life-long metal fans. I am 42, four children and full-time sales/service. Began my love of metal at about 7 and could never see going away for as long as I live. By appearance you might not expect this from me. For me after a long day, too much stress or to clear my head I choose metal. Give this Doc a look, if nothing else it justifies that lyrics that may seem ridiculous to some but are a way of life to the oppressed.

I am appalled at the high rating for this film, especially those claiming this is MORE metal than Dunn's previous effort -- "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey." At least "Headbanger's Journey" had a point. This is documentary film-making at its worst. The thesis of the doc is quickly abandoned by spending 75% of its time on American and European bands. Nothing new is discovered... We spend our time chock full of Maiden, Slayer, Deep Purple. We go to precious few locations and discover in all of South America -- home to legions of awesome death metal -- just ONE band? SEPULTURA!? In Japan, we listen endlessly to Marty Friedman (!?!?). We profile X-Japan, one of the crappiest pop metal bands in existence, and then barely skim over the only EXTREMELY popular Japanese black metal band -- Sigh. Not only do we only see them briefly recording in the studio, we don't even HEAR the actual recording session or talk with them about how they are one of the pioneers of the immense genre. What is this guy out to discover? It's pretty obvious that the filmmakers are not privy to the vast expanse of amazing metal bands, numbering in the hundreds of 1,000's worldwide. We get very little indication of what the music in each country sounds like, and instead, we're subjected to Mr. Dunn walking along famous landmarks with underscores by Slayer and other American metal. Discussions are not probing. Everything in this documentary is simply WRONG.I've visited many of these areas and can attest that there are metal heads out there.. everywhere, bursting at the seams. There are SO many bands out there -- extreme, weird, interesting -- and movements waiting to be discussed. The political nature of these areas is simply glossed over and would've provided a much more in-depth and engrossing piece.This needed to be WAY more full of bands NATIVE to each area, and entire continents are skipped over.It's fairly clear that the filmmakers did most of their miniscule research on the internet (they even state this when they go to China) and didn't even dig deep into sites such as Encyclopaedia Metallum, which illuminates instantly more about this world than this documentary could've ever hoped to achieve.This film is an abomination to metal and should not be pushed onto the public as true information. At least "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" was a decent primer on the subject. I watched it with my girlfriend at the time, and she instantly understood what I saw in the genre. This film is simple tripe. Under-researched, over-funded, and without substance.

Global metal is the second Sam Dunn Heavy Metal documentary. The first, 'Heavy Metal: A Headbanger's Journey' is, so far as I know, the standard documentary covering the Heavy Metal scene. It does an excellent job of both detailing the history of Heavy Metal, and explaining its appeal, but it is focused on explaining Heavy Metal to those who do not know much about it, and because of this, might conceivably have less appeal to hardcore metalheads.'Global Metal" by contrast, is probably better calculated to bring new information to the attention of experienced Metal fans, but is not a condensation of extensive knowledge about the global metal scene, and it shows. This is not a bad documentary, but as exploration on Dunn's part, and constituting a light survey, it is not quite so informative as the first.I would further note that this is not a comprehensive documentary on metal throughout the world, but is more a "metal is spreading to exotic places" sort of documentary. This fact is not a criticism, but knowing this is likely to be important to at least some of the people looking up the film on IMDb.A truly comprehensive film covering the history of metal would necessarily be of epic length, considering that this documentary does not cover the US or European Metal scenes in any significant fashion and yet at 93 minutes, the film does not seem to be especially dilute.