Beowulf

[cinemabon]

Robert Zemekis again ventures into virgin territory creating an entire film in motion capture, similar to Polar Express (which he also directed) yet far more complex. Screenwriter Roger Avary penned "Pulp Fiction" "Killing Zoe" and "Rules of Attraction." He and collaborator, Neil Gaiman "Stardust" decided to breath life into the legend, which Zemekis found interesting enough to develop into a project. Starring the voice of Ray Winstone "The Departed" and the voices of Anthony Hopkins, Jolie, and many others. Zemekis filmed live performances and then altered their appearance, putting them into the action created as animation on the screen. (Not like rotoscoping, more like a full creation as Jackson did with Gollum from Lord of the Rings).

Since it is being shown locally in 70mm IMAX format and 3-D, I cannot resist, as I love the huge screen format. We are going Sunday. I will post my review then. The film is being criticized in England for being rated PG-13 and having two scenes that show frontal nudity. I would have thought the slow motion stake piercing the character's heart with blood spurting everywhere would bring more concern that Angelina's fake boobs. I guess some men just can't handle them.

[cinemabon]

Beowulf – directed by Robert Zemekis

I might be going out on a proverbial limb, yet I believe this is the greatest 3-D film I’ve ever had the privilege of watching. If you do not have an IMAX theater in your neighborhood, then I suggest you drive to the nearest one; your effort will be richly rewarded.

********spoilers*******

Men are corruptible, that is the lesson of “Beowulf.” Money and power corrupt. As this film opens with its lush attention to detail, its perfect setting in terms of story, and the rich landscape laid before the audience in stark realism, Zemekis introduces us to the fateful and quite drunk King Hrothgar. His celebrated slaying of a dragon and the riches he brings are the stuff of legend and his youth. Yet, at the height of the celebration, a horror is unleashed on the merriment of the castle’s hall. Grendel comes to visit, a huge hideous monster intent on stopping the music that pounds in his ears. He brutally kills practically everyone in the hall and stops short of killing the king. We find out later why. He is the son of a demon, and a bane to King Hrothgar.

Enter the moralist, the role of Robin Penn Wright as Wealthow. She acts as the rudder for the progress of this tale, and the person whose observations prove to be correct when it comes to judgment. Why and how the King Hrothgar marries the young girl is never certain. Yet, she knows a great deal of the king’s history, including his clouded past. In order to defeat Grendel, the king calls for a champion, and offers up half his gold to the man or men that can kill him. In the next breath, we meet Beowulf on the high seas, making his way to this kingdom of Denmark.

The tall Nordic god-like man stands at the bow of his ship, unafraid of the storm raging around him. When confronted by his second in command, he boasts how the sea is his mother, and therefore, would not take him back… yet. He is a beacon to his men. When he arrives, he proudly states he will defeat Grendel. However, the court is skeptical of this new hero. John Malkovich provides what at first would seem to be a Wormtongue like advisor, in the character Unferth. Yet Zemeckis does not present anyone in the film as a stereotype. Each person is complex and unique, refreshing for a ‘dragon’ film. Unferth tries to undermine Beowulf by describing his faults in a great verbal combat before the King. During this sequence, Zemeckis treats us to a three dimensional extravaganza, flying through the ocean, battling monsters of the deep and mermaids. Our hero tells but a tale, though later Unferth honestly recants his doubts of Beowulf when the man proves himself worthy in battle.

The story takes another turn where the men must spend the night in the hall to face Grendel. Beowulf strips nude and fights the monster on his own terms. The grappling that follows always manages to keep Beowulf’s legendary “third leg” strategically covered by some object, something that becomes a joke to the audience. However, even after a terrifying battle in which we get to see blood dripping at us in 3-D, the plague that haunts the castle and the king is not over. Grendel’s mother destroys Beowulf’s army (except his second, the only survivor). The king then confesses to Beowulf that Grendel is actually his son, and that it is the mother, a powerful demon, who must be destroyed.

When Beowulf enters a cave to confront the demon, Angelina Jolie rises out of the water, covered in gold. She is stunning and quite naked. Her ponytail forms a wicked lance with a sharp point on the end. Nothing mortal can ‘penetrate’ her. However, she entices Beowulf to give her another child, since he slew her son. She promises him riches and a long life as the new king. When he returns, King Hrothgar sees through Beowulf’s lies at once that he killed the demon. He hands his kingdom, including his wife, over to Beowulf and commits suicide. His body is never recovered, as its essence is returned to the water demon, Jolie (whose character has no name).

Years pass, the king is renowned for his conquests. In a passionate scene on the beach, the last surviving member of an army challenges Beowulf to a duel. In a dramatic scene, Beowulf begs the man to kill him… “You cannot slay me!” The man collapses out of fear from the powerful king. We also see how money and power have corrupted Beowulf. His face is haggard, drawn, worn from the guilt he carries. As he and his second return to the castle, a dragon attacks the nearby town. The dragon transforms into a golden young man who whispers a message to the aging Unferth, “Tell Beowulf, his son seeks his father,” or words to that effect.

When Beowulf goes to confront the water demon, she appears only to reveal the son they begat, an enormous golden dragon. The scene that follows is perhaps the best portrayal of a dragon ever created for cinema, far outstripping such past dragons as the one in “Dragonslayer” or more recently in “Eragon.”

What Robert Zemeckis and his wonderful technical crew of artists have created is no less than a bloody miracle. While this process does not replace real actors, yet, these animated characters soon make you forget you are watching animation and not reality. Beowulf represents a milestone in cinema special effects and is, in my mind at least, one of the greatest achievements in filmmaking of all time. This is one film not to be missed this season, by anyone that finds film their passion. The story is told as an epic heroic tale with all the pomp and glory such tale’s possess, including the tarnish. For Beowulf says it best, “I am just a man.”

[oscar jubis]

A woman is the Devil, another is the source of Wisdom, and men are easily corrupted by sex and power in this very loose adaptation of an ancient text. I wonder how many critics who panned it (Metacritic score:59 out of 100) watched it on 3D. It's the only way to watch it; it was filmed to be watched on digital 3D. Otherwise, it would be like judging a sculpture based on a photograph of it. Or perhaps some of these critics don't appreciate cinema as a uniquely audiovisual form of art and entertainment; they watch movies as the latest form of storytelling or a substitute for reading books. Beowulf is pure, grand, thrilling spectacle you cannot get from any other art form. It's a must-have experience. It's over immediately after you exit the theater and can't be replicated (or even approximated) at home.

[tabuno]

Unfortunately, BEOWULF presents the future movie industry as well as live actors with one of those potential paradigm shifts like sound tracks to a movie from silent features and color from black and white film. Now we have animation that is ever closer to exactly simulating live action and real actors. Will like the covers of magazine the ideal, fantasy of technology now take over reality, real reality of live actors? Will animation remain distinct from live action or will it eventual become so powerful an industry, profit-making device that no live actors will be able to recreate successfully that now we are on the precipice of anew theatrical revolution that goes beyond human abilities? The fear of robotics in the early 20th Century has come into reality has millions of humans have been replaced. Is the same to occur with the movie industry in the coming decade?

While I agree BEOWULF has accomplished a new level of animation realism and at times uses this animation realism to a much better effect than could be achieved by real actors, there remains a blurry line between reality and fantasy - as such it was hard to judge this movie. There were apparent flaws in animation consistency particularly with Angelina Jolie's character in the cave as her image distractingly shifted from realistic to animation to realistic and animated again. There are moves that from a human standpoint appeared beyond human ability in a number of fighting scenes, even beyond legendary, detracting from the fancy realism portrayed on the screen.

The focus was so much on the animation effects, the drama that a number of the character development points were left hanging...and the Queen's attitude appeared at one point too contemporary when she appears distressed about her King's affair and than reverting to her period's role of women later in the movie. BEOWULF was too frontloaded to impress the audience leaving the substance of the life of BEOWULF to suffer (not just in terms of actual experience) but leaving little room to see the decline and emotional disease of his life in decline. As more and more movies adopt this animated realism, the creativity and novelty of BEOWULF will wear thinner and the substance and content which was less than perfect will diminish the initial excitement of this movie. However, as for BEOWULF setting a new standard, it may be remembered as a historical achievement if not great movie.

[cinemabon]

I would agree with your assessment of Beowulf and add further to your speculation regarding animation replacing actors. While there can be little doubt that the realism in Beowulf is striking, this kind of application presents an obvious dilemma to directors. Normally on a set, if a director isn't satisfied with a take, he calls for another one (as long as the budget will allow it). Beowulf cost Paramount $150 million to make and will likely garner less than 90 million box office (est.). That is a daunting hurdle for producers willing to take that gamble. For I find that Zemeckis must have faced the same problems and chose to settle for a shot rather than completely reshoot, based solely on financial concerns. Actors may be replaced when it comes to 3-D fantasies presented in IMAX format. However, we have many decades to go before real actors will be replaced in a vast majority of films. Actors may breathe a deep sigh of relief at this point... for your versatile faces are as yet, indispensable.

[Johann]

I'm making a special trip to the Silvercity Imax theatre tonight to see this movie the way it's meant to be seen.

I have a particular fondness for this poem.
Very few cinematic adaptations have been produced.
Robert Zemeckis is a professional and I feel in safe hands.

[bix171]

Robert Zemeckis' second experiment with motion capture "animation" is, in its epic, violent presentation, the polar opposite (no pun intended) of his first, the contemplative and peaceful "The Polar Express". But Zemeckis continues to investigate his great theme, time and how it shapes memory, and, by virtue of that, life (a theme which goes back at least to his masterpiece "Cast Away") and in "Beowulf" the implications are tragic, resulting in a loss of innocence far greater than the ones experienced by the main characters at the conclusions of his two previous works. In its IMAX, 3-D incarnation, the film is completely overwhelming (though occasionally the imperfections are revealed: some of the stop-motion photography is, four decades later, little better than Ray Harryhausen's; and the facial expressions frequently fail to rise above the level of characters in a video game) but it's always engrossing and the agressive screenplay (by the ubiquitous Neil Gaiman and Quentin Tarentino's brilliant co-writer Roger Avery) is more thoughtful than the average fantasy. The heavyweight cast, including the always welcome Ray Winstone, John Malkovich, and Anthony Hopkins, are good enough but the sheer spectacle surrounding them renders them almost superfluous. It's hard to tell where Zemeckis can go after this--while he's made a very intelligent film with an innovative animation technique that successfully blurs realism with the fantastic, he may have brought the concept to its' limit. The technique may have fewer applications in genres other than the ones he has explored; continuing this path may prove more constricting than liberating. He's almost finished eliminating the need for actual performers--what else can there be? Zemeckis has enough innate talent, though, that I'm sure he'll show us the way.

[Chris Knipp]

Robert Zemeckis: Beowulf (2007)

Livening up the Anglo-Saxons

Review by Chris Knipp

Sturla Gunnarsson's film version of this Anglo-Saxon poem and legend a couple of years ago robbed the story of its legendary elements. Since Beowulf is a national myth freely blending the magical, fantastic, and historical, nothing very memorable, or even appropriate, came out Gunnarsson's well-meaning effort to make it brooding, "historical," and "realistic"--except that he did capture the overwhelming gloom of much A nglo-Saxon poetry.

Robert Zemeckis has done a new version, vivid and full of life, gore, and occasional humor. To achieve this effect he has used motion capture technology, with improvements over the previous feature to use the effect, Polar Express. He's also enlisted some rather famous actors, and the movie's been shown in regular format, a 3-D projection with the old glasses bit, and I-Max.

All of which turn the tale into something fabulous, perhaps a bit kitsch, pretty entertaining, and the most ridiculous PG-13 movie ever. It's extraordinarily violent; but then, so are many traditional children's stories, myths--and national epics (the Iliad and the Odyssey aren't sweet little nursery tales; but that's the point: nursery tales aren't sweet).

In the 3-D version I saw, as in the old days of 3-D, which never did catch on, spears and drops of blood and pebbles spew constantly in your face. We'd be dead or maimed if our mugs were thrust so close to such events. But after a while you get used to it. You adjust to the motion capture imagery too. It makes sense for legendary characters to have an artificial gloss. The point is there's no naturalistic way to render the Beowulf story.

This movie has done well at the US box office. Some have compared it to a computer game, and it's certainly comic book or graphic novel material in the Zemeckis version. But the result is surprisingly effective, and despite some jarring elements--most people may just remember a naked Angelina Jolie with an odd accent, and maybe Crispin Glover covered in gore and spore and magnified to fifteen times a man's size, as Grendel, the monster.

A highly computer-enhanced Ray Winstone (provided with a super-nautilus body) plays Beowulf, the Geat who comes to slay Grendel for Hrothgar, leader of the Danes. The story opens with the great "mead hall" where the early Scandinavians got drunk and swore oaths they later were held to. Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) is a drunken, fat old man with a young wife Wealhtheow (Robin Wright Penn); he's nonetheless extraordinarily brave. When the monster Grendel, a misshapen, outcast creature, comes to kill many of Hrothgar's men in the hall, Hrothgar stands up to him boldly--and survives. But the next day he closes the hall and goes into a period of grieving.

When Beowulf comes along offering to slay Grendel and boasting of his prowess, he is challenged, primarily by Unferth (John Malkovitch)--an interesting character, unappealing, cowardly, but a useful foil for Beowulf whom the hero ultimately forgives and in the film version turns friendly. Unferth accuses Beowulf of exaggerating his prowess in a swimming contest. In the movie, Beowulf is a liar several important times. This is not exactly the way the story originally went, but writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary have embellished the original in interesting ways.

The most obvious one is Angelina. "Grendel's dam" (an animal term for mother) as the poem calls her is never clearly described--certainly not as a big-breasted, bee-sting-lipped naked babe. This is certainly a lively element, but a pretty distracting one. Beowulf has to battle Grendel, then his mother, and then, later, a great dragon. Arguably the dragon is even more distracting, since it's a huge, spectacular, golden creature. But this makes for an appropriately grandiose climax.

Grendel is pretty weird looking, a little too grotesque and disgusting and not monstrous on a heroic scale as the epic poem implies, but naturally Crispin Glover does good things with the character, making him a pitiful as well as scary figure.

Scholars argue endlessly about the meaning of various elements in the story; a big issue is how strong the Christian element in it is. As someone who studied the original pretty closely at one time myself, I was impressed at how well this movie brings the story to life. It doesn't seem to have appealed much to the critics. But the ancient bard who spun out the original poem was not an arthouse filmmaker. Yes, it's kitsch; yes, Angelina's a jarring element; and yes, the various accents are a dreadful mixture. But anything that leads people back to the oldest English literary tradition of all and gives it popular appeal again seems pretty worthwhile to me.

[cinemabon]

I'm so glad you decided to see this in the 3-D and IMAX format, and weigh in with your review. Ordinarily, we would probably not be discussing this film to any degree or detail, since the Zemeckis treatment is certainly pedestrian compared to previous works like Forrest Gump. However, the presentation of Beowulf changes all of that, making this more of an event on the scale of going to an arena, filled with spectacle and awe-inspiring over-the-top effects to accent certain scenes.

The three scenes that stand out to me are the confrontation scene with Grendle, Beowulf's sea tale, and the climactic dragon riding scene, taken to its suspense-filled finished. Zemeckis throws caution to the wind, making his characters stereotypical, voluptuous, sensual, and appealing. In 3-D and IMAX, I feel as if I've not only ordered the Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae, but someone is ladling the thing down my throat!

[Chris Knipp]

Well, a lot of movies are like that, regardless of which techniques are used--sundae ladled down our throat.

I was surprised to see that some academic scholars of Anglo-Saxon poetry spoke very favorably of the movie,l but after seeing it, I understood why. This should show that my purpose in life is not to jump on and find fault with every literary adaptation. Some I really like. And this is one. The critics don't exactly know what they're talking about. This is a poem about monsters and monster killing and heroic deeds. In his way Anthony Hopkins embodies the bravery of the Anglo Saxon king.

Probably Grendel's mother was a monster and not beautiful. But it's intersting that the Avary-Gaiman version makes her sort of like Circe in The Odyssey.

And the way the grand golden monster dragon is done at the end is obviously linked with the 1001 Nights (another thing I've studied). Sometimes popularizers can do a cook job.

I could not stand Forest Gump. I could hardly bear to watch it. I could not stand Tom Hanks after that. Though I like him in Cast Away.

I didn't exactly "choose" to see the 3-D vdersion; it was just the one that was available to me at Regal Union Square. They complained about it in England. Maybe here they give us better glasses. Mine were pretty good, though they darken the image a bit.

[cinemabon]

Since this is the last time I will be able to post for the next few weeks I'm going to jump outside the box...

Merry Christmas, Chris, Oscar and everyone... my wish is that my agent accepted my book! I won't be logging on for a while as I will be traveling without my computer (thank god!). I hope your candidate does well in January. See you next year!

Your friend as always, Cinemabon

May you always find 'Good Cinema!'

[Chris Knipp]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you and everyone!

[Chris Knipp]

P.s. And good luck with your book tour and your book, about which we hope to hear more in future.

[Johann]

Yes Happy Holidays to everyone.
I won't be posting as well during Christmas, so all the best to everyone over the break.

In the new year I'll post about Beowulf, which I enjoyed.

On to 2008!

[oscar jubis]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO CINEMABON, CHRIS, JOHANN, TABUNO, MOUTON, PETER, BIX, AND EVERYONE WHO POSTED THIS YEAR