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Beowulf

Review By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com

I should begin this review by saying I’m not all that fond of gimickie movies; i.e. 3-D films, IMAX experiences, scratch & sniff’s and whatever else they may come up with to try to get people back into the theaters. I understand and admire the idea behind expanding the movie going experience, but I just don’t feel like the technology is perfected enough yet to give the audience the true feeling they are hoping for. Let’s face it if 3-D was perfected wouldn’t everything be 3-D? It always feels to me like it gets in the way of the story. If you can effectively tell a story in a different way and make it more interesting then go for it, if not, let the story work for itself.

That being said, a CGI’d version of the legend of Beowulf is a perfectly reasonable choice to delve back into this territory and the results are technologically astounding. The progress that has been made on the process since the 2004 release of the Tom Hanks led holiday film, Polar Express is truly remarkable. If only our efforts for finding alternative sources of fuel could meet with such quick results we probably wouldn’t spend so much time in theaters trying to escape the world; but I digress.

Beowulf is literally one of the oldest stories still being told today. Originally written more than thirteen hundred years ago as an epic poem, it tells of a kingdom beseeched by a terrible monster named Grendel; who by all accounts is evil and kills without reason or remorse. The King cries out to find a warrior hero brave enough and skilled enough to finally rid his kingdom of this monster and in exchange would receive riches beyond his dreams. Beowulf, a bold, brash young warrior arrives and vows to slay the beast and enjoy the spoils. Beowulf of course achieves the impossible and kills Grendel only then to have to face his mother and then ultimately a dragon as well.

Visually the movie is beautifully done. I’m actually looking forward to watching this on DVD eventually so as not to be distracted by the damn 3-D nature of it. I’m sorry I just don’t enjoy that experience. Some of the effects were cool, I won’t lie, but any time you watch something in 3-D you can tell which scenes were added just so that things could be thrown at the audience to make them jump back. To me, that gets in the way of the story. Lot’s of unnecessary tracking shots through the forest, lots of swords swinging out into the camera and things of that nature. The few times it did actually work for me were some shots where people were being thrown into the water and the camera follows the ...