As American movie attendance dropped significantly in the ’50s – mostly due to the spread of television – the film industry grasped for ways to bring its audiences back. While widescreen technology became the preferred format for film, 3-D movies were largely failures. The blue and red glasses and popping screen visuals stunk of kitsch, and 3-D has completely faded away – until now.
Beowulf heralds the glorious return of 3-D, not as a gimmick but as a legitimate cinematic technique. Though the film still sends spears and arrows careening toward the viewer’s eyes, the added dimension serves to extend the depth of focus. The foreground bulges, the background remains crystal clear and the space between stretches on.
Visually and viscerally, Beowulf is a theater-going experience quite unlike anything we have seen so far in cinema. The nearly 1,500-year-old epic poem may single-handedly kick off the digital 3-D revolution. Though the narrative arch reaches to be epic, thankfully the filmmakers keep the story well-confined within the two-hour time frame.
For this film, director Robert Zemeckis has honed the motion-capture computer animation he used in one of his previous works, The Polar Express. The characters and voice work still feel a little wooden in Beowulf, but the digitally rendered cast has evolved in leaps and bounds from the soulless, glassy-eyed figures depicted in Express.
The dialogue and screenplay, courtesy of Neil Gaiman (MirrorMask), take great liberties with Beowulf’s source material. Yet some of the digressions are more justifiable and interesting than others.
King Hrothgar’s (Anthony Hopkins, Fracture) Danish kingdom, Heorot, has come under attack from the hideous monster, Grendel (Crispin Glover, The Wizard of Gore). The filmmakers imagine Grendel as one of cinema’s most physically grotesque creations: a charred, oozing giant. He is a visual manifestation of man’s lustful and murderous ways.
The title hero, voiced by Ray Winstone (The Departed) travels with his small army to meet the carnage visited upon Heorot. Arrogant and egotistical, Beowulf promises victory without considering the consequences. Killing Grendel proves more difficult and costly than expected – he has a mother who is a bit overprotective.
Stunningly curvaceous (even in motion-cap), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart) bridges the animation gap in an eerily seductive turn as Grendel’s mother. The gold demon shimmers her way around the watery caverns deep in the mountains, preying on the weakness of the powerful men who fall into her treacherous arms.
More than just a tale of sin and the onset of Christianity, Beowulf really comes down to the monsters, dragons and swords (in 3-D!). The English majors will likely have a field day with Gaiman and Avary’s poetic license, but some hokey exchanges aside, the damage could have been far worse.
Hopkins emerges with the most convincing performance, though Winstone carries the lead well enough. Only John Malkovich’s (In Tranzit) flat voicing of Unferth really hampers the production, though Queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn, Hounddog) could have been given greater detail.
The dragon was pretty damn convincing, though – Beowulf’s final tackle with the monster could very well be one of the greatest on-screen dragon duels in all cinema.
Despite numerous flaws, Beowulf makes for a great popcorn flick. Cinephiles and action junkies will devour the visual feast.
Theatergoers should be forewarned – Zemeckis and his team composed Beowulf for digital 3-D, and the film deserves to be seen as the filmmakers intended. Besides, it would be truly sinful to skip out on what could be a watershed moment in movie history.
zherrm@umd.edu
RATING: 3.5 STARS OUT OF 5
