BEOWULF
Director: Robert Zemeckis Stars: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover, Brendan Gleeson, Alison Lohman
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
Watching Beowulf, I had the sometimes wonky experience of rapidly changing moods and moving from dislike to admiration to dislike again. Perhaps a useful clue is given by some reviewers: it will appeal to the 300 crowd. 300 was a macho, macho actioner, based on a graphic novel, some absurd dialogue from absurd accents and designed to look like a moving image graphic novel.
While taking its inspiration from the old English epic poem, Beowulf, the screenwriters (with graphic novel backgrounds and enthusiasms) have tried to make the poem more coherent in plot and in motivation. They have succeeded. However…
Before writing about the ‘However…’, acknowledgement must be made of the extraordinary production qualities. Firstly, the film was made in 3D – and, if you must see it, try to see this 3d version see it and on an IMAX screen. It is often breathtaking. Never has there been such clear 3d photography and projection. So much seems literally in your face and often movement seems to be coming over our shoulders and flying towards the screen. This is top technology.
The other important aspect is that Robert Zemeckis introduced what he calls captured performance in his family film, The Polar Express. This is a form of animation film-making. The actors use skintight clothing, have sensors all over their faces and wear electronic helmets. They perform within a limited ‘black box’ space with cameras moving rapidly and intricately through the action. The sensored material is then the foundation for the computer work as the designers and costumers, the set decorators and the make-up artists, using the basic filmed performances, flesh them out bringing form and colour, gearing the mouthing of the dialogue to the performance.
This means that some characters look like the actors (especially Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie), some more or less like (John Malkovich) or artificial (Robin Wright Penn) or completely different: Ray Winstone is transformed into an almost two metre high sleek warrior hero. He also stands in for the dragon while Crispin Glover is the monster Grendel. The dragon fight is quite spectacular.
Back to the however… The film is a mixum gatherum of Danish carousing, perilous sea adventures and killing of monsters, political intrigue, fidelity and infidelity, epic action and all too human sins.
Some of it works well, some of it is difficult to gauge as the actors sometimes declaim as if they are voicing animation while others act more naturally. And the accents… allegedly Welsh (following Anthony Hopkins) but not really suggesting 6th century Denmark.
Beowulf is something of a ‘guy’ thing. But it does have Anthony Hopkins saying, “See you in the morning, Odin willing”!!
Reviewed by MARCUS SINCLAIR
Beowulf in 3D on IMAX is an optical revelation. The huge screen and the digital 3D process heighten the visual experience thus giving almost total involvement for the viewer in the events. Its impact is felt to the fullest in the battle scenes, especially with the monsters, and it reaches its peak with the astonishing dragon sequence at film's end.
But beneath the visual spectacular there is much to be desired. The script, based on a fragmentary manuscript of the same name which was written during the latter part of the Eighth Century, has a thin story line and even thinner character development, even though the screen-writers have attempted to threshed out the original. But the major flaw concerns the dialogue. It is nondescript and often appalling. As a result the acting is stilted thus giving the impression that the players, realising these weaknesses (or due to the lack of skill), don't quite know how to rectify the situation and bring it alive (the exception being Angelina Jolie as the mother of Grendel, the mythical half-human monster who nightly raided the king's banquet hall and slew the revellers). And to top it off, there is Anthony Hopkins giving his most hammish performance yet. Hence, such is most noticeable in the scenes, regardless of the set designs and costuming, where all sit around carousing, talking and fornicating.
At the technical level director Zemeckis, though he knows the correct camera angle and movement to use to create a dramatic situation, spends far too much time milking the 3D system for all it is worth. The viewer is bombarded with objects falling or being thrown; axes, sword, knife and spear attacks; of heads or horses suddenly popping up onto the screen from the sides or the bottom of the frame. And because of the frequency of these things and the odd compositions to cater for the 3D effects there hangs over the film an overwhelming feeling of artificiality. This is especially noticeable when dealing with Beowulf's nudity, and in this case it is, unintentionally, hilarious.
In summary: nothing to ponder here; nothing to stimulate the mind and lift it to higher levels; but for all its weaknesses Beowulf is well worth a viewing. Apart from the stunning action sequences, it is a preview of what the movie-goer can expect to experience as regular fare, for better or for worse,in the not-too-distant future.