Beowulf, movie review Nov 18, 2007 - 19:42 PM
When I started watching Beowulf, I thought, 'Wow, Shrek IV has come along way, animation wise, but where the heck is the Big Green Troll guy? And hey, where's Fiona?' I mean, animation has gotten real good, but we can still detect a fake human from a real human. The kind of sturdy rubberiness is there, and the sometimes lack of gravity and weight (think Spiderman) is there.
But the gap is narrowing. After about the first 15 minutes you start to forget that you are watching animations, and start to think of them as people. And there are definite bonuses to animations versus live actors. For one, Grendel's mother sure looks like a naked Angelina Jolie, with bigger breasts - which I guess is an argument (augment?) for 3D animation. Queen Wealthow looked a little long in the face, though, and I think they based the model for Beowulf on Wealthow's 3D face, except they got rid of her crossed eyes and slapped a beard on her. Go ahead, watch the film, compare the two, tell me I'm wrong. It's funny, I didn't know Anthony Hopkins was doing the voice of Hrothgar, and I missed it until he slapped some clothes on and got sober and I went, 'Wow, they must have based King Hrothgar on Anthony Hopkins, but the animated Hrothgar is doing a better acting job.' I know, some of you are going 'He's the greatest living actor of our generation asshole, what do you mean?' Have you seen Alexander? Or Red Dragon? I rest my case. Talk about phoning it in. At least he does a great voice talent for this - leave the acting to the animators, pleez! I thought the Grendel in this was great - looking like a giant with bad teeth and a really bad skin problem. An added plus is that Crispin Glover is already a crazed maniac - can you say 'type cast?' It's funny, on IMDB.com, At the time of this writing, they do not list Ray Winston as doing the voice of Beowulf, they only list him as the "Drunken Thane." Well, yeah, but Beowulf was also a badass muzzahfuckah, as an oft-quoted Arnie in Predator would say. So what if he has a drinking problem, if you had to fight Crispin Glover, and have sex with your twin, you'd have a drinking problem too. Don't get me wrong, I liked the film quite a bit. I thought the whole thing was a lot of fun, and the whole retelling of the Beowulf story as a tragic cycle was a great twist. I definitely recommend it to the type of person who liked 300 or Troy. If you liked those films you are definitely going to like this one.
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