Beowulf the DVD

This is a review of Beowulf as presented on DVD. It's an animated film from last year that so much hype was raised over. The question here though is not so much as what kind of film it was, but more along the lines of when does tech become a hindrance and not so much an aid. This film was more about watching a proof of concept than it was watching a story. As with Ratatouille, the question quickly arises, if you wanted that street background to be photo realistic down to the shine and rust on the shutters, why didn't you just film it? For Ratatouille however, it was a Disney / Pixar film and those questions about backgrounds and undergrounds were left there in the background, but for a film where you're being asked to believe in a near photo realistic world with accurately modeled and presented human beings, then you're asking me to sit there and judge not just the background, but everything in the film. And the answer is a resounding NO, the people do not look real and the world does not look real, nor does it look hyper stylized as an animated film typically would, particularly such a comic booky genre type film. I'm left to repeat that over and over again watching hands that don't quite connect or grasp, feet not exactly right on the ground, lips too big and out of sync. Now if this had been a hyper realistic comic booky world like Ratatouille and Toy Story, then I can forgive all of it as I become a part of a world defined by it's art and design where hands, feet and lips squish and expand of their own accord.

From there you drift into one question after the other about stuff that has nothing to do with the execution of the movie at all. First of all, you have all these great actors - Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson (of Mad-Eye Moody fame), Crispin Glover, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins among several more and you are going to spend the effort to film them perfectly and then rotoscope over them with only near perfect representations of themselves. Why? You have these guys live and in the flesh. You have a serious adaptation of a great Saga. Let them get on a sound stage and chew up the scenery with each other. It's like having all the great British actors found in the Harry Potter films but only having them in the films for like 5 minutes. These guys are a movie by themselves, just point a camera and shoot.

In the extras of the DVD, you see the director, Robert Zemeckis, telling his wide eyed actors on their first day, that yes this is an animated film, but you'll still be in make up for hours getting little dots each day, you'll be on a soundstage acting and speaking your parts that will be recorded and used, you'll be interacting with not just each other but full on props and animals, but you're in an animated film. Again. Why? Well, in another few breaths he says, after filming a massive boat in a storm scene that would have taken days and days to film for real, 'look how quickly this is getting done instead of taking weeks to film'. Then he goes on to express his great satisfaction at having 15 minute turn around times for set changes and stuff. So... the advantage to this is doing it on the cheap? Doing it fast? Well, I'm guessing you're now going into months and months of post production, no? You're going to pay an army of folk to create this entire world from scratch and animate this film. So have you really saved time? Saved money? Saved effort? I'm not so sure. If you're going to present a photo realistic animated film, why not just film it and have CGI effects ala LotR? That way, it looks, you know, real without having to generate by hand fake realness. Now if your going to make a unique hyper realistic world that we will become immersed in and want to be real, sure go for it. Create something new and something totally original that marks this film as it's own art and it's own imagination.

Another thing that bothered me technically about the film was Beowulf's privates - or more exactly the lack thereof. Beowulf purposely and sensually strips for the viewer and for the queen. He will fight for ten minutes following in the buff, but you will never see Beowulf actually nude. In fact, the film suddenly turns into an Austin Powers slapstick farce as every arm stump, leg stump, dagger, sword, table leg, shadow and passerby all amazingly just find themselves in the right position to cover Beowulf as he flings himself through the scene. Though, once every upright object he could hide behind is used up, they have to resort to the ridiculous poses Beowulf has to put himself into so that he isn't exposed to anyone.

Instead of these ridiculous stunts, why didn't they just leave him in a loincloth? They also do this with Anthony Hopkins with a very loose drape which should have been wrapped about him and stop all that hide and seek nonsense. The same for Angelina Jolie. Instead of covering her in oil that drips off her, why don't you just keep her covered with scales or drape? If want to just blatantly exploit her for $$$ ... just do it... and settle for the R rating ... otherwise... stop with the farcical visual stunts and move on. Nothing takes you out of movie faster than the director basically stating directly to the audience, "Hey! You almost saw something dirty! Ha Ha."

I mean, who is this movie for anyway? Youngsters and their money? Or are you making an adult film for adult viewers? Well... stop with the kiddy naughty naughty stuff and treat your audience with at least an ounce of respect and maturity.

This movie is really just a proof of concept. This is the technology (motion capture / digital rotoscoping / 3D animation / 3D projection / virtual camera) and here's some neat stuff you can do with it. I'm just not sure if this is the right film for the technology or even if it's the right application of the technology to this film. And I don't really want to be thinking that while this film is going on. I certainly don't think that during The Incredibles, Ratatouille or Surf's Up.

The film itself is okay. It's a good popcorn / laundry movie. The animation of the faces in some scenes is pretty much photo real, but in others it's video game quality animation. Most of the big pieces and big sets look like video game cut scene animation. The story by Neil Gaiman, (Star Dust, American Gods), is pretty good and the performances are great. It's just a shame that I have to see such great actors speaking through blocky video game mouths. Neil Gaiman did a good job working through the Saga and retelling it by drawing lines from things left hanging or added on in the original and making it work more singularly as a story and more circular as a plot by having the tale repeat and use the same characters over to show how history can repeat itself no matter how great the hero. Good stuff. The ending is left "open". It's a fade out as you are kind of led to the idea that oh no, it's going to happen again. I say the evil beast is spurned and killed by Beowulf's right hand man... and hey, they left it open... so that's what I say happened.

I rate this: 2 stars out of 5. A good laundry film that you can tune in and out of while you do your housework. Decent animation, but really, why not just film these great actors doing what they do best?