The Grandfather Of Action Heroes Gets A Makeover
I am beginning to believe that Beowulf, as a story, is one that you have to admire, but can never really love. While even the poem has action and adventure, it also has a detachment to it that leaves a lot to want. And while director Robert Zemeckis seems to enjoy this story, it’s easy to see that he doesn’t ever truly embrace this hard-as-nails tale of lust in all it’s forms.
The film has the spirit of the old poem, but dances to a completely different tune. Writers Neil Gaiman (author of the novel that inspired this summer’s Stardust) and Roger Avery (the co-writer of Pulp Fiction) take the story and circle around the wheels of raw lust, be it for sex, ambition, immortality, fame, or gold. It starts off at a Norwegian king’s (Anthony Hopkins) new mead hall in the middle of winter. The wine, women and song seems friendly enough to those in attendance. But the monster Grendel who lives in the caves outside of town seems to dislike any kind of merry-making and decides to crash the party in a scene that Rob Zombie might be jealous of. The king wagers his fortune to any man who can kill Grendel. Enter Beowulf (Ray Winstone), who announces himself once every ten minutes and swaggers with the arrogance of a He-Man reject. He has come to kill Grendel for glory…and mead (but he wouldn’t say no to the king’s riches or his beautiful young wife voiced by Robin Wright-Penn). This leads to one of the strangest and funniest action scenes this year when Beowulf opts to fight his opponent in the buff, leaving for some of the most hilarious covers for his manly parts. From this point, Beowulf it pitted against Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie) and offered the devil’s deal, which leads us to the more somber second act and an eventual battle with a dragon that is the highlight of the film.
Beowulf has always been thought of as a morality play, historically used by the first Christian emissaries when trying to convert the Pagans. The film has a character voiced by John Malkovich that embodies that spirit. The film ultimately wants to see the events both with a satirical edge with a hint of human drama. Beowulf is arrogant and foolish, but he’s also a warrior. The movie is incredibly bloody and teeters on the R-Rating more than a few times (another notch against the MPAA). The first act has most of the jokes and satire and is the best part of the film. The second act is dry, thoughtful which hurts the film as a whole. Yes, it does have the best action sequence, but at the expense of the tone of the overall film.
While I complain about the film’s unevenness, there’s a lot to love. But I will admit that most of it consists with the presentation on the big screen. While the standard 2-D version is still a good way to see it, the film really needs the IMAX-3D touch to make this a sensation. It can rightfully be said that the gimmick of 3D is what makes the movie work, but oh does it work. While there are moments designed specifically to throw things at the audience, there are some great moments that allows the screen to breath outside itself, just like Zemeckis’ classic The Polar Express. Another great thing about the animation this time around is the photo-realistic look of human CG actors, something that has always been out of reach, even in the latest Shrek movies. I will honestly say that given a few more years, we will have computer-generated actors who could be passed off in live-action films without detection
But the question now needs to be asked: can their computer counterparts enhance human actors. Look at Ray Winstone, who easily has the voice of Beowulf, but would never in a million years have the body for it. And yet they have made the character look like we expect the warrior to look like, and we can imagine him sounding like Ray Winstone. And then there’s Angelina Jolie, whose character looks like Angelina Jolie with a tentacle or three. But the one that looks exactly like his human counterpart is Brendan Gleeson who plays Beowulf’s right-hand man.
Motion capture, the art used to create these characters, allows actors to not just voice the parts but to be the actors in a digital studio. Earlier this year, Pixar’s Ratatouille boldly stated that there was no motion capture used in their film, as though the use of the technique is lazy. While I consider Ratatouille the more artful film between the two, I can see that both styles are capable of high art, especially in the hands of directors like Brad Bird and Robert Zemeckis.
All in all, Beowulf is the pure definition of popcorn entertainment. This is a movie meant for the big screen with a large audience, funny glasses on your face, not to mention a smile. But I must implore that you watch this movie in theaters with the earth-shattering surround sound and the larger-than-life screen, I hardly doubt it will be nearly as impressive at home.