Word: beowulf
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...already chided Robert Zemeckis's new animated feature, written by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman, for insufficient fidelity to its fabled source. I have to confess I can't remember even sleeping through the poem in high-school English class. So my only, ignorant criterion has to be: Is Beowulf a good movie...
...like Angelina Jolie. In their use of "performance capture," a technique that fans of traditional animation view with the sternest skepticism, the film's makers have managed to show more acute behavioral emotion, as well as some fantastic images uncapturable in live action. You want to read Beowulf? Get the book, I'm not stopping you. You want bloody adventure with a brain, see the movie...
...story will be familiar even to those who don't know the poem. The kingdom of old Hrothgar (voiced and modeled by Anthony Hopkins) is troubled by the predatory sorties of Grendel (Crispin Hellion Glover). Accompanied by his "14 brave thanes," Beowulf (Ray Winstone) comes across the sea to slay the monster and, not incidentally, add another laurel to his own legend. He repels a Grendel attack on Mead Hall, severing the beast's arm. Grendel limps back to his lair, where his mother - she has no name, so we'll call her Grendma - watches him die. When Beowulf discovers...
...Arriving at Beowulf is still like visiting the optometrist: the movie screen is an eye chart, with pictures instead of letters. But the glasses are kinda cool, like wrap-around Ray-Bans - larger, because the IMAX screen fills most of your field of vision, and less distracting than the old kind. Just don't tilt your head; suddenly everything gets blurry...
...slipping off his mammoth body. It also takes a while to grow accustomed to the faces of Hrothgar, his wife Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) and the oily counselor Unferth (John Malkovich). The faces have lines and creases, but they don't look lived in. This quibble subsides when Beowulf appears. The political drama of the palace is instantly amped up to mythical stature, and we can start appreciating the film for what is is: a live-action cartoon...