Robert Zemeckis has directed a handful of movies which I have enjoyed over the years, including what I thought was one of the best triples out there in Back to the Future (The Power of Love anyone?), the Tom Hanks movies Forrest Gump and Cast Away, and The Polar Express, where Zemeckis teamed with Hanks again and ventured into the territory of motion capture animation. He continues that effort with Beowulf, a take on the legendary warrior now given the spin by writers Neil Gaiman (Stardust) and Roger Avary.
As the story goes, the Danish kingdom of King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) is under constant threat from a butt-ugly creature called Grendel (voiced by Crispin Glover,
and I swear you’ll find it hard to make out what the beast is actually saying), who, hating the kingdom’s merrymaking, plays party pooper by massacring the king’s men. So when all hope is lost, Hrothgar sends word out that worldly rewards will be bestowed upon anyone who can rid his kingdom of the demon. Enter Beowulf (Ray Winstone), a medieval Constantine and his band of merry Vikings, who volunteer their services. Think of it as Leonidas and his 300 men (here it is only 14), a group of professional soldiers of fortune whose aim in life is to seek out adventure and gloriously die in battle.
But there’s a little bit of mystery added to why Grendel has such an affinity for mass destruction, and soon Beowulf learns exactly why temptation is hard to resist, especially when it comes in the form of a naked Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother, oozing sex in a strange accent and dripping wet, a hybrid of the world’s sexiest woman and a lizard (thank goodness it’s just that slinky tail): an object of lustful desire. In fact,
the leads have a penchant for getting naked, and Beowulf’s habit of stripping and showing off his well-buffed body has the filmmakers using objects in the scene to preserve his modesty (think Austin Powers style) with somewhat unintentionally comedic results.
The film visits the theme of the greed of man; whether one is willing to compromise, lie and boast about false achievements to gain recognition, fame, fortune and the likes. Nevertheless, what one does echoes in eternity and one’s sins will come back to haunt one: there are those who can be trusted, but sleeping with the enemy is just asking for trouble. But this movie isn’t titled Beowulf for nothing, and, given his exploits in this movie (actually only two major action sequences involve the titular character), I suppose Beowulf action figures will sell like hot cakes. One thing is for sure, though, this movie’s lizard puts Eragon’s monster to shame. Though Eragon had more of such flying creatures, this one has menace written all over its wings.
The animation here is top notch and flawless. Every image is so sharp some might complain it loses the warmth that film normally gives. I for one always thought that animation in motion capture was cheating, with actors already providing the template to add on fanciful colours and make-believe environments, leaving very little for the animator to fill in. Still, the film is in the running for a nomination in next year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and, while I expect the nomination to be a shoo-in, the film will face stiff competition to actually win the Oscar.
With few Jolie-less scenes or action sequences to make Beowulf truly memorable, the filmmakers might be hard pressed to serve a second helping of this action hero. It is worth a watch as an out-and-out action flick in the vein of 300, but it offers very little else. Even the supposed love entanglements between Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) and Ursula (Alison Lohman) fall through without enough screen time, and the fast-forwarding in the middle of the movie certainly doesn’t help either.
Stefan S
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