Short Movie Review: Beowulf
Last night a bunch of us caught the 3D IMAX version of Beowulf, which was decent enough. There were times when I was unimpressed with the computer-generated faces, but for the most part, it was a testament to how much more convincing CG productions can be with some motion capture (and without “Final Fantasy” in the movie title). The script did take some pretty generous liberties with the original story, inserting central themes where there were none intended before, but I think that kind of had to be expected and even tolerated. This is loosely based on the earliest known manuscript in the English language, and back then, a rollicking good adventure could be summed up as: “There was a monster, and Beowulf killed him. Then Beowulf killed the monster’s mom. Then Beowulf went home and became king. Later, Beowulf fought and killed another monster, which also killed him. Truly he was mighty, and the days of heroes like him are gone.” Moviegoing audiences expect something a little more twisty, overtly moralizing, or even somewhat reflective nowadays, though, and I think this one did a decent job of modifying the story to provide that, even if it did sort of feel like Beowulf fan fiction or a movie version of Marvel’s old What If..? series.
1 Comment so far
Leave a comment
Beowulf’s animation was all around impressive, though the characters’ movement reminded me a lot of Shrek. I appreciate the fact that this movie gives a pseudo-education in ancient literature (never had to read the book as a child)
By patrick on 03.04.08 1:14 pm
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>