Another library rental. Which brings me to the point - why can't people take care of things that aren't theirs??? Our library does decently in their selection considering the population of the area it serves (very small post). Yet the idiots who rent seem insistent on beating up on the discs (both CDs and DVDs). We rented a CSI season the other day that had 2 episodes (of the 4 on the disc) that would skip ahead 10 minutes at a time - in one episode you missed a death and the discovery of another body! 10 minutes is a lot in a 45 minutes show!! It's as if they reason, "it's not mine, so it doesn't matter" Seriously folks!! Minor rant brought up by several scratches on this disc too...
Anyhoo: Beowulf. For clarification, this is the most recent version, all CG. Yeah, the one with Angelina Jolie.
The story centers on the epic poem of Beowulf, a hero who rids a town of the troll plaguing them, and then deals with its vengeful mother. There's also a lot of guilt and soul-searching and such, as the mother monster is a temptress, prepared to be the proverbial devil in the bargain.
I never read Beowulf in school. It's part of the 8th grade curriculum in the school district where I grew up, but my 8th grade teacher flat out said he didn't like it, so we would read something else. Instead, we had an intro unit on Shakespeare and read Hamlet. I still thank him for it :) As a result, I only knew the plot synopsis from Bulfinches' and Edith Hamilton's mythology texts. What that means for you? No rant like in my review from Troy! :)
I can't say much about the acting in this, as it's all CG. I mean, the voice acting is good, and they have some good talent in the cast (Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn...) but despite all the sensors and so forth they used on the faces in the filming process, the characters just don't have much facial expression. At least not as much as they could. One review I read described it as having 'too many layers of pancake makeup' on. The queen's character (Robin Wright Penn) was especially blank, facially. And it's not like this is a total action movie - there's a lot of guilt and recriminations and questioning of decisions by the characters, so there's plenty of opportunity for more in the faces. Even traditionally animated movies have more facial expression in their characters than the ones in this movie. But, I guess the technology isn't there yet. It just made it harder to get into the story somehow. Can't relate to the characters as easily, I guess. I really don't know why they didn't do a blend of real and CG - maybe budget, maybe "let's see what we can do" Either way, it's a visually appealing film without any depth, even though the story provides lots of opportunities to get into the characters.
The most interesting, engaging part of the whole DVD was in the extras, on how they filmed it all. Very well done, actually. Be sure to watch.
The writing did have some interesting points. I like Neil Gaman's work, personally, and he's good about those dunique bits in unusual scripts. Just has an interesting way of looking at the world ("The Sandman," anyone?) For example, this is all based on an Old English poem, which is practically a foreign language to us today. The writers found ways to incorporate some of the Old English into the script. Grendel and his mother especially speak in Old English. It's a nice touch that gives them a little more of that other-worldly feel. Still, I'm sure that Hollywood took some serious liberties with the story, too. We all already know my feelings on that :)
One point that I reeeeeally didn't like - especially at the beginning, they seriously overuse the strobe effect. Be forewarned. Grendel first appears with a lot of flickering blue light, creating a strobe effect all over the town's feast hall. Good long fight scene introducing the monster in that flickering scene. Then, you head to the seas to meet Beowulf, who's sailing into town in the midst of a lightning storm. Zach was really bothered by all the flashing for so long, and I at first was just annoyed, but started to get a headache from it all. Got really obnoxious flickering that much for that long. I can't imagine dealing with all that in a theater.
Also, they overused some of the tricks you can do with CG camera angles. The whole looking-down-the-arrow-as-it-flies and so forth. Not badly done at any one point, but it got a little old for me.
Overall: 2 of 5. I didn't hate it, but it just never drew me in. The fight scenes were well done, but some of the lighting and camera work just made your head hurt. At times it felt like it was done more "to see if we can" more than anything else. Still don't see why this couldn't have been a blend of real and CG work.
I never read Beowulf in school. It's part of the 8th grade curriculum in the school district where I grew up, but my 8th grade teacher flat out said he didn't like it, so we would read something else. Instead, we had an intro unit on Shakespeare and read Hamlet. I still thank him for it :) As a result, I only knew the plot synopsis from Bulfinches' and Edith Hamilton's mythology texts. What that means for you? No rant like in my review from Troy! :)
I can't say much about the acting in this, as it's all CG. I mean, the voice acting is good, and they have some good talent in the cast (Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn...) but despite all the sensors and so forth they used on the faces in the filming process, the characters just don't have much facial expression. At least not as much as they could. One review I read described it as having 'too many layers of pancake makeup' on. The queen's character (Robin Wright Penn) was especially blank, facially. And it's not like this is a total action movie - there's a lot of guilt and recriminations and questioning of decisions by the characters, so there's plenty of opportunity for more in the faces. Even traditionally animated movies have more facial expression in their characters than the ones in this movie. But, I guess the technology isn't there yet. It just made it harder to get into the story somehow. Can't relate to the characters as easily, I guess. I really don't know why they didn't do a blend of real and CG - maybe budget, maybe "let's see what we can do" Either way, it's a visually appealing film without any depth, even though the story provides lots of opportunities to get into the characters.
The most interesting, engaging part of the whole DVD was in the extras, on how they filmed it all. Very well done, actually. Be sure to watch.
The writing did have some interesting points. I like Neil Gaman's work, personally, and he's good about those dunique bits in unusual scripts. Just has an interesting way of looking at the world ("The Sandman," anyone?) For example, this is all based on an Old English poem, which is practically a foreign language to us today. The writers found ways to incorporate some of the Old English into the script. Grendel and his mother especially speak in Old English. It's a nice touch that gives them a little more of that other-worldly feel. Still, I'm sure that Hollywood took some serious liberties with the story, too. We all already know my feelings on that :)
One point that I reeeeeally didn't like - especially at the beginning, they seriously overuse the strobe effect. Be forewarned. Grendel first appears with a lot of flickering blue light, creating a strobe effect all over the town's feast hall. Good long fight scene introducing the monster in that flickering scene. Then, you head to the seas to meet Beowulf, who's sailing into town in the midst of a lightning storm. Zach was really bothered by all the flashing for so long, and I at first was just annoyed, but started to get a headache from it all. Got really obnoxious flickering that much for that long. I can't imagine dealing with all that in a theater.
Also, they overused some of the tricks you can do with CG camera angles. The whole looking-down-the-arrow-as-it-flies and so forth. Not badly done at any one point, but it got a little old for me.
Overall: 2 of 5. I didn't hate it, but it just never drew me in. The fight scenes were well done, but some of the lighting and camera work just made your head hurt. At times it felt like it was done more "to see if we can" more than anything else. Still don't see why this couldn't have been a blend of real and CG work.
