Beowulf
From the “what do you mean that’s not a comedy?” file comes 2007’s Beowulf, another adaptation for the screen of the Old English epic poem of the same name. I remember reading on a message board when Beowulf came out that “finally, we had a Beowulf movie.” Yes, indeed. With the 1999 Beowulf starring Christopher Lambert, the 2005 Beowulf and Grendel starring Gerard Butler, and with a few television movies telling the Beowulf epic, I could certainly see how someone would consider it long overdue for another Beowulf film. All sarcasm aside, this Robert Zemeckis film really is something.
Zemeckis’ film is another one of these motion capture deals, much like The Polar Express except with slightly more violence and slightly less entertainment value. The idea to create a motion capture version of Beowulf couldn’t have been further from the original plan for the film as it came about in the late 1990s. In 1997, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary wrote a screen adaptation of Beowulf. The script had been optioned by DreamWorks and was slated to go ahead with Avary as the director and Robert Zemeckis on board as producer. This was to be a “small-scale, gritty” film. The film never got off the ground, however, and it languished about until Zemeckis picked it up again and wanted to use digitally enhanced live action to do the piece.
The animation for Beowulf was created by Sony Pictures Imageworks and it is quite impressive, save for a few sloppy instances. Overall, though, Zemeckis’ vision for Beowulf is the best looking one to hit the screen. It’s also the best vision of Beowulf to hit the screen, but those who have seen the aforementioned films know that this is likely not complimentary. The idea to use animation was put in place so that Zemeckis could create shots that were impossible to film using live actors, such as the dragon fight near the end of the film that ratchets itself up into new heights of film silliness.
Beowulf stars Ray Winstone as the protagonist. Winstone said he enjoyed working with the motion capture, adding that it gave him a new kind of freedom for the role and enabled him to perform the part of Beowulf like a theatre production without the frequency of starts and stops in normal film productions. The film also stars Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Crispin Glover as Grendel, Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother, John Malkovich as Unferth, and Robin Wright Penn as the Queen. The cast was excited and nervous to work with the motion capture, but what was even more of a challenge for the ensemble was the achievement of character accents.
Most people know the story of Beowulf by now. Beowulf shows up and must fight the monster Grendel, who has been destroying the village. He eventually dispatches of Grendel, however not in the heroic fashion that he imagines. Later, Grendel’s mother seeks revenge and Beowulf must dispatch of her as well. He lies about it, though, and leaves her alive while he becomes king of the land. Later, as time passes and Beowulf’s guilt mounts, all hell breaks loose once again in the form of a big fiery dragon and some neat special effects. Beowulf’s struggle with guilt and age are among the most compelling pieces of the film, but the majority of these elements are just too uneven to care about.
I know, I know. People aren’t going to Beowulf to see a plot or character development. The special effects are the meal ticket here, especially in IMAX 3D. While watching this film in its 3D version, you can see all sorts of arms, legs, coins, and splashes of mead fly towards you as you dodge them. It is a very immersive experience that begins to wear thin after the creators run out of tricks. Still, Beowulf is visually impressive and it is on this ground that Zemeckis asserts himself the most as a filmmaker. The Polar Express was as stunning if not moreso, in my opinion, but that film also gave us some of the heart that Zemeckis had to tell a decent story. With Beowulf, the story is lacking in favour of splashy CGI and impressive shots. The direction by Zemeckis just wasn’t convincing enough, though, to overcome many glaring errors.
For one thing, the entire film is downright laughable. Winstone’s Beowulf is somewhat like a Monty Python hero in his rhetoric and in his nonsensical delivery. Whipping off all of his clothes to fight Grendel isn’t menacing or heroic. It’s just weird, especially as we watch him literally swing from the ceiling. There is a lot of stuff like this. The violence isn’t cartoony, that’s for sure, but the path to it certainly is. Case in point: the dragon fight at the close of the film is so weakly choreographed that it’s funny, as we watch Beowulf reach inside the dragon to stab it in the heart. Ooops, he dropped his sword inside the dragon. I hate when that happens! Stuff like this piles up and really discredits Beowulf as a serious contender for a solid adventure story. If the humour was intentional, however, I’ll tip my hat.
All in all, Beowulf is a pretty sloppy effort from Zemeckis. For motion capture animation, I still prefer The Polar Express. It’s sweet and icy visions were far more compelling than Zemeckis’ exercise in gore and cleavage that we receive with Beowulf. The performances are wooden and stupid and the action leaves a lot to be desired. The potential for some real broad scale action was here, but for some reason Zemeckis didn’t go for it. The best looking moment, which was a broad stroke of a battle on the beach, is seconds long and an hour too late. That disappointment, all too common in this film, about sums up Beowulf.
Trailer:
