Beowulf (2007)

 

Robert Zemeckis has made some awesome films. 'Back to the Future', anyone? But then at a certain point in his career, he wanted to focus solely on motion capture and thus went for 'The Polar Express' and later on this one. Why? Maybe because of the challenge of creating something digital that looks almost as good as true 'live action'? Who knows. Thing is, it always feels a little weird and the uncanny valley is strong with this one. 

But is it worth checking?

The newly built hall of Heorot is under siege: every time the Danes and their king Hrothgar have a party, they are attacked by a massive troll-like creature named Grendel. Heroes have come and tried to destroy this creature, but to no avail. So in sails Beowulf and his Geats, to try and do what others could not. In a brawl, Beowulf rips off the arm of Grendel, effectively sentencing him to die. But what no one could have foreseen, is that Beowulf's mother is still close and she wants revenge. She not only kills nearly all the Geats, but in fact manages to entice Beowulf into giving her a new son, promising him wealth and fame until a golden horn is returned, then the deal is off. Many years later, the horn turns up, as well as a dragon. Beowulf is now an older man and realizes this is all his fault and goes up against the dragon in order to save his kingdom. 

Yep, this is pretty much the classic Beowulf-tale as is, with a few tweaks for a more logical narrative. The fact that the dragon is now Beowulf's son, is one such adaptation, but it fits in with the story here, so no complaints. In fact, Zemeckis stays fairly close to the source material, which is a nice change of pace. Sure, it's fantastical and what have you, but if you ever need to introduce someone to the story, you could do a lot worse than show them this version. 

This film is also loaded with a plethora of great actors. You get people like Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie all in one go. That is an impressive list for our main cast. That also means that most of the 'acting' is spot on. The best performances come from Robin Wright, Anthony Hopkins and Brendan Gleeson by far. Malkovich is a little too slimy as Unferth and Ray Winstone just comes across as his usual gruff Brit, which sometimes clashes with the design of Beowulf. It's a little tricky trying to take him seriously when his Cockney accent comes through. 

Something that is also well chosen, is the fact that Grendel and his mother speak an older form of English, more akin to Saxon. This fits, considering they are remnants of an ancient past and it makes the transition to a world where there are no more 'monsters' more palpable. Grendel's design is that of a deformed baby, which is a little weird at first, but it works. Grendel's mother is slightly more nondescript, as you only see her true form in reflections, whereas she appears to people as a more rounded out version of Angelina Jolie. I get that she was supposed to be ultra-seductive, but why she has actual high heels is a bit of a conundrum. 

So far, so good. There is only one glaring 'problem' with this film, and that is that 'uncanny valley' aspect. See, the character models look fairly realistic and you can recognize most actors through them, but they are not realistic enough to lose the sense of watching something animated. Some of the movements are too slick or too shoddy, and especially the mouths don't always move like they should. In fact, in certain scenes, it all looks like a prolonged cutscene from a videogame. Yes, it's cool that they can do this and it must save on setbuilding expenses and what have you, but the CG hasn't aged that well and it can be quite disconcerting to look at. A shame really, because as a story, this is fairly well done.

A bit of a mixed bag here: it's a good adaptation of the story and as a film it is entertaining enough, but that weird CG makes things a little uncomfortable to watch. Give it a try if you want, but it's not a must-see.