Saturday, December 15, 2007

Beowulf, the movie

Not bad at all. The movie retells the ancient legend and remains surprisingly close to the original saga. Beowulf comes across first as a true hero, strong, brave, and wise, in the prime of life, out to win glory by slaying a dreadful monster. Then in the second part, Beowulf is older, a successful and beloved king faced with a second coming of monsters. Despite loyal followers, wives, and mistresses trying to talk him out of it, a graying Beowulf pulls on his mail shirt, picks up his sword and goes to protect his people from a dragon. It's well done, and we left the theater with a warm spot in our hearts for Beowulf, a tough guy who never flinches from the path of duty.
The movie is three D (they issue glasses). The 3-D is used for spectacular effects which do get your attention. Spears and arrows and suchlike fly right out of the screen into your face. The rest of the flick is mostly CGI. It's well done, looking at the lead actors, Beowulf, Grendel's mother you almost think they are live. Some of the supporting cast do show their CGI origins, but all and all, its a big step forward for computers, another few years and we won't be able to tell live actors from CGI. Angelina Joli as Grendel's mother is very successful. She has Angelina's face, and some CGI bodily inhancements and I couldn't tell just how it was done. Did they digitize Angelina's face and create the actress entirely from pixels or did Angelina act the part live and the CGI wizards souped it up afterwards? There are some things I would have done differently, but all in all it's a good action adventure flick.
Any student assigned Beowulf as classwork should see this movie.

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