Beowulf by Robert Zemekis (2007)
24 April 2008I had wanted to see this in the theater, and especially in 3D, but Kelly was scared that the 3D would make her sick, so I held off and ended up getting this cheap on the discontinued HD DVD Disc which tends to clean up the banding you get in these computer generated movies on DVD, and certainly did wonders here. And the animation here is pretty amazing, and looks great, and very lifelike, and you can easily tell who the actors are supposed to be (though Ray Winstone sure looks skinny and buff), but for me this movie really begs why, because I am sure this process was actually more costly than doing this in live actrion and adding Grendal and the monsters as effects, and I can’t really say that having it al animated added anything to the story. With science fiction movies like Final Fantasy you can understand because the cost of the sets and the high tech equipment would be too much, but for a medieval story like this, it could easily be done live action with some CG wizardry. Sure you might not be able to get some of these actors to play these parts, as I said Ray Winstone is not this buff or young, and you probably could not get Angelina Jolie to go naked for this, but it could still easily be done, and would probably have looked better overall. I can’t speak as too the adaption as honestly I don’t know it, but this film is decent, but nothing too amazing. Good graphics, but could be so much better.
King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkings) has a blight on his lands, he is married to a beautiful young woman named Walthow (RObin Wright Penn) and has many people including his follower Unferth (John Malkovich). His wife won’t touch him, and in a night of drunken revelry in their famous hall, an evil creature named Grendel (Crispin Glover) attacks and kills many people. The people are in despair, but from the ocean a brave knight named Beowulf (Ray Winstone) and his men including his right hand Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson) come to help rid the land of their monster.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Beowulf has the king re-open his drinking hall, and they all party, with Beowulf going to sleep naked in readiness, when Grendel attacks. He reeks havok, but Beowulf manages to cut off Grendel’s arm. The people take it as having killed Beowulf, and take him as a hero, though the king and his wife know the real problem is Grendel’s mother.
The King gives Beowulf his dragon flask and makes him his heir, and Beowufl heads to the cave to make sure Grendel’s mother is dead. He finds Grendel dead, but the mother (Angelina Jolie) seduces Beowulf and promises him eternal rule as long as she can keep the dragon flask, so he gives it to her, and becomes king on return as the king dies, and marries Walthow.
Years later Beowulf is still king, and has a young woman he is sleeping with as Walthow never got close to him as she expected that like her former husband Beowufl has slept with Grendel’s mother.
And shortly someone returns with the Dragon Flask, signaling the end of Beowufl’s rain, and coming shortly after is the Dragon (also Ray Winstone) who is Beowulf’s and Grendal’s son, who attacks and triest to kill Walthow and Beowufl’s new love. By cutting off his own arm Beowulf manages to kill the dragon, but he too dies, and then we see his right hand Wiglaf being seduced by Grendal’s mom, starting the process again.
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Impressive graphics, but not too impressive of a film. This could have been so much better.