I don't know what Robert Zemeckis is doing here. His last two movies have been entirely motion picture capture CGI Animation. He takes actors, covers them with dots and then digitally restores them in a fantasy land. Which would be cool if the actors looked like people in the final project. Most of the people in Beowulf looks like Sims. They have all the corresponding body parts but they have more in common with robots with rubber skin than people. The technology is not yet ripe, hopefully if Zemeckis hopes to do this sort of thing again, he can finally get it right. If he can't then he should resort to the good example of 'Sin City' and just film real people in front of a green screen. Then he can have his fantasy land populated with real people not androids. I never thought a naked Angelina Jolie could be so unsexy.
As far as action and spectacle are concerned the movie succeeds. We have a cool Grendel, Sea Monsters, and Fire Breathing Dragon. (Then again, I could say that action and spectacle succeed in any movie nowadays can't I.) I saw this in an IMAX screen although I'm not sure it was in 3-D. I don't think it was, although a few scenes hinted at it.
They also did a good job I felt adapting the movie from the book, or ancient manuscript as it was. There was a huge makeover with Grendel's mother that draws the two sides of the story together. Most people won't like the very liberal way they fooled with the source material. Personally I didn't much like the story when they made me read it in high school. I didn't much care that they made up half of it.
It's almost impossible to talk about performances in this movie. The technology they use to bring this movie to life can't make real people. We have a tremendous actor in Sir Anthony Hopkins, but his movements are artificial and his face can't convey true emotion. It's like the guy is wearing a full body suit, not something even the most talented can act through.
Then we have Ray Winstone in the title role. Here the technology can get creepy. Winstone is a bit chubby in real life. In the movie he has the body of a Greek God. He's got a sick pack of abs and huge defined muscles. Apparently the only body part Ray contributed was his face. Everything else is made up. There is one exception when this stuff actually works, and that's when a charachter is doing something physically impossible. When Beowulf battles sea monsters the effects work. This I think is because we are watching fake people doing fake stuff. When Beowulf has emotional closeups the technology falters horribly. I can't take the robot seriously! I don't feel his humanity.
This too happened with Angelina Jolie. Seeing her in this movie with nothing on really didn't have the impression on me it should of had.
And I saw John Malkovich's name in the credits but I haven't the slightest idea who he played. Where was he? I have the suspicion it was but a voiceover. I don't know.
Robert Zemeckis is one of my favorite directors and I would gladly pay to see any of his films. This one doesn't change that. I respect that he's on the cutting edge of visual effects but I sincerely hope, for his sake, that he perfects whatever he's trying to do soon. I really don't care too much about all the cool camera angles or effects this type of film provides. I just want to watch a Zemeckis film with people again.
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