Beowulf

[Asmor]

Wow, I can't believe noone's started a Beowulf thread yet. Well, I'm just going to repost my thoughts from my livejournal.

I saw Beowulf last night with Jon at the IMax theater.

The movie opens up with a close-up shot of the queen's face. I'm thinking to myself, "Hmm... She's not bad looking, bit of a butter face." And then over the next 5 minutes or so, something begins striking me as a little bit off...

Then I realize that the entire movie is CGI. Everything.

I swear, this is not hyperbole: I literally could not tell that the people (well, most of them) were not actors by looks alone. Everything looked exactly like a real peson. The hair, the eyes, the lips, the skin, everything. The only thing that gave it a way were that a couple characters looked a bit off (the king's advisor) and the animations at certain points were a bit unreal.

But still, my god, the cgi was incredible.

The movie itself was pretty good too. The story was surprisingly complicated, not the "Monster terrorizes village, hero tracks monster, hero kills monster, hero wins girl" story I would have expected. Amazing action scenes, great characterization... Overall, just an incredible movie.

My only complaint is that Jon and I got to the theater just a few minutes before the movie started, so we got crappy seats up front and being so close to the screen some of the 3D didn't work correctly and was a bit unnerving. In a few days when the crows thin out I want to go back and see it again.

 

[frankthedm]

My only complaint is that Jon and I got to the theater just a few minutes before the movie started, so we got crappy seats up front and being so close to the screen some of the 3D didn't work correctly and was a bit unnerving. In a few days when the crows thin out I want to go back and see it again.

Uhm, you did mean crowds... right ?

 

[Relique du Madde]

I also saw it last night. I thought the cg work was kick ass and the movie was alright (even though it killed Hrothgar and destroyed the story of Beowulf in order to show Angela Jolie's naked CG body for more then 5 minutes).

Unfortunately, beyond the re imagining of the Beowulf plot story I also had issues with the insane amount of yelling and shouting that occurred during more of the movie which was worsened by the fact that they audio levels seemed to be pumped way up during the combat scenes and every time Beowulf had to yell or shout a line. The yelling was so bad that my GF threatened to walk out during that first Grendel scene.

 

[Meloncov]

(even though it killed Hrothgar and destroyed the story of Beowulf in order to show Angela Jolie's naked CG body for more then 5 minutes).

I haven't seen it yet, but I read an interesting article about how they adapted the plot. It pointed out that the fight with Grendel's mother in the original text both didn't make much sense (even Beowulf shouldn't be able to hold his breath for days) and is described as what Beowulf told the villagers, making it likely that he was lying.

 

[Relique du Madde]

<snip> making it likely that he was lying.

Well of course he was lying because you can't over embellish a story without telling a few dramatic lies. However...

(spoiler)

Spoiler

.. in this version Grendel's mom survived till the end and ended up seduced Beowulf into giving her a half-human demonic dragon child.

 

[Asmor]

I should mention that, going into this movie, all I knew about Beowulf is that it was an old myth involving a monster named Grendel (which I'd thought was a dragon).

I thought the story was fantastic.

 

[Tetsubo]

My wife and I enjoyed it. We thought it was a very attractive film but slow at points. The final battle scene was great. The additional story elements were OK but not as great as the original myth.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I enjoyed it, saw the 3D version and thought it was well done. Wonderful battle and excellent heroic fantasy.

Oh, there are roles that get cast right and Jolie as Grendal's mother was it.

 

[Mistwell]

Saw it last night also, and thought it was much better than I expected.

I am not a fan of that kind of animation. I know people have used the term CG, but I don't see this as CG. It's the same method they used for Polar Express, and I didn't like it there either (though I liked Polar Express). It's usually called Motion Capture Animation.

Anyway, once I got past the animation issue, I thought it was a pretty good movie. And the script was co-written by Neil Gaiman, whose writing in general is great.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Saw it in 3d. Only way to see this movie - it was not an afterthought - but made for it throughout. No "last 20 mins only in 3d" cheesiness. The whole damn thing - start to finish.

I had no idea 3d had progressed to the point it was that good. I was floored.