Beowulf
Director's Cut
(http://i.imgur.com/mzsSogL.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/jJv8vOb.jpg)
Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9qpqyO_dmU
I know the story of Beowulf, but I have never seen the Robert Zemeckis film of the same name until tonight. Not really sure why I never sought this one out. It might have to do with bad word of mouth when it first hit the big screen and then I kind of lost track of it. I think it was seeing Outlander that sparked my curiosity to check this out once and for all.
The movie isn't bad, but it could have been so much better. The Computer graphics really do shine here and it's some of the best I've seen for a film that is as "old" as it is. As good as it looks, there was something kind of nagging at me the entire time while watching the movie. Really, what's the point of doing an all CGI film with characters modeled after the likeness of some of the most well-known faces in Hollywood? If the idea was to push the technology as close to realistic as one could get back when this came out, then why not just do this movie as a Live Action film? You are already using all the actors via motion-capture to log into the computer.
Anyway, like I said, it looks great in the '2D' version. Curious to know how the 3D version plays and if there was a huge leap between the two films. It's clear by how they staged some of the things within the movie that they were doing the typical 3D shots (i.e. pointy sticks and spears aimed at the viewer, etc....). I think the movie does suffer from slow pacing at key points during the film. Had it been a bit tighter with the action pieces a littler closer together, it would have played better for me. The other thing about the movie is that I really didn't have a connection to the characters because I'm looking at Hollywood elite in CGI form and constantly second guessing the idea of doing this all in CGI. It's definitely worth a Rent though, especially to see the finale battle between Beowulf and the Dragon, which is very cool and the one thing I had been waiting the entire movie to see. That and of course a "naked" Angelina Jolie. Also in the cast is Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover and Robin Wright Penn.
Beowulf DVD Screencaps
Coming soon.....