Review: Beowulf (2007)

Ever have one of those dreams where Anthony Hopkins is married to Robin Wright Penn, and a giant mutant Crispin Glover is his son, but Angelina Jolie was the mother? And Hopkins asks Ray Winstone, the son of an old friend, to get rid of the hellish beast who has a habit of tearing up the mead hall and eating people, but Hopkins' advisor John Malkovich doesn't think Winstone is up to the task. Nevertheless, a naked Winstone defeats Glover, killing him by ripping off his arm, then sires another son for Jolie (also naked) in exchange for her protection. Years later, when Winstone is married to Penn, but sleeping with Alison Lohman, his offspring appears, but it's really him in dragon form, and he has to fight himself to the death. Ever have that dream? Beowulf is kind of like that.

I admit I only read the epic poem years ago when I was in high school, so I have no idea how closely the movie follows the original story. Given that the screenplay was co-written by Neil Gaiman (whose other work I love, including the wonderful fantasies Mirrormask and Stardust), there's a pretty good chance that he took some license with the story. Beowulf the movie consists of a long setup full of tall tales and buckets of mead, all leading to an impressive set piece featuring an old man doing battle with a golden dragon. In the air. Using, in the end, nothing but his bare hand to rip out the beast's heart. The climax is all very exciting, and the whole movie is all very computer generated.



Director Robert Zemeckis has fallen in love with this new movie making process which digitizes the performances of real actors using tiny balls affixed to strategic locations on the actors' bodies and faces. Complex computer graphics software takes this motion capture data and creates artificial scenes with very realistic characters. I'm sure it saves a bundle on location scouting, model making and set dressing. The digital artists responsible for the look of the film really do a remarkable job of making the digital characters resemble their live actor counterparts.



Zemeckis' former foray into this style of filmmaking, The Polar Express, was a big hit in IMAX. I wish I'd seen Beowulf in IMAX 3D, because I think it would have added greatly to the experience. This is a movie made for viewing in a theater, as the dark and gloomy environments are difficult to appreciate on a TV screen. The main exception, the dramatic airborne fight sequence between the king and the dragon, is bright and beautifully rendered.

Beowulf is rated PG-13, and includes plenty of viscerally violent scenes, including Grendel picking up men and tearing their bodies in half, as well as biting off some heads. There's also a bit of titillating nudity featuring Angelina Jolie's avatar, as Grendel's mother seduces Beowulf. Nothing very explicit, all tastefully presented. If I've made the movie sound cartoonish, it really isn't. It's quite dramatic and serious. An epic story reimagined with modern technology.