Beowulf

[jplnoons]

Anyone going to watch this movie this weekend? So far the reviews are not bad.

[Jimlo]

I'm debating whether or not to see it. I probably will end up going.

[Kalbrecht]

Hella yes.

Ancient epic poem? Check
Story about heroism, death defying feats and monsters? Check
Cool technology? Check
Angelina Jolie? Check

Yeah, I'll be there. :-)

[Rafal Dudek]

How much does the movie portray the legend of Beowulf? I'll wait for reviews and opinions of other people. For some reason, I don't think they did it right. And I dont want them to screw up the history and legend like they did with Alexander the Great.

[Kalbrecht]

Neil Gaiman had a big hand in adapting the thing for the screen, which is a damned good thing. He's an incredible author, who has a great sense of adaptation and working things for an epic scale.

That's another plus ;-)

Here's IGN's review http://au.movies.ign.com/articles/835/835792p1.html

[Jimlo]

And don't forget about Anthony Hopkins superb acting.

[Rob]

My wife and I watched Beowulf yesterday since she gets extra credit in her literature class if she watched it. So score for both of us.

First off, if you have read Beowulf... forget it. Go into the movie to see a movie, not a book adaptation. I was able to seperate the two and enjoyed the movie more than my wife, who kept going back to the book. I enjoyed the changes, even though it greatly deviates from the book. I did feel the second and third act were much more enjoyable then the first. I love drama, so having slow pace character building is not a problem, but in Beowulf, it seemed to drag on a bit too long before getting to the action where the story really picks up.

The CGI was hit and miss. In many instances, I could not discern CGI for live action, which was their intent. In other instances, mostly in the movement of background characters, it felt stiff and a bit awkward. In general though, the main characters looked great, except for the queen who I felt was noticeably CGI. One thing I hate is when you have live action against noticeable CGI that takes you out of the movie (Chronicles of Narnia is a good example). With Beowulf, since it is all CGI, I never had this sense of being taken out of the picture because of jarring contrasts of live vs. CGI. I had other issues as mentioned above, but this was not one of them.

The acting in general was top notch. I read some of the actors commentaries and the consensus was they had greater freedom to do what they want, and to me if you give a good actor this freedom, you will get great results. As Jimlo mentioned, Anthony Hopkins was superb. I also felt his character had the most expression and detail.

Overall I liked the movie. Unfortunately it is distributed by Paramount, so I will not be able to buy it on Blu-Ray when it is released. Because of the emphasis on CGI and detail, I feel it is one of those movies that needs to be watched in hi-def to really enjoy.

On a side note, my wife and I see only one or two movies in the theater a year, and we are both in agreement my home theater with Blu-Ray looks better than the theater. Now I just need better sound, which the actual theater still holds over me.

[NotSoFast]

Should have seen it at the IMAX in 3-D. Visually, it was the best movie I have seen in MANY years.

[RangerRick]

Should have seen it at the IMAX in 3-D. Visually, it was the best movie I have seen in MANY years.

Are you aware that the 3-D is an animated version?
My son went to see it THursday night, and said that the 3-D version is animated. He said it was good, but really wanted to see the one with actual people.

[Rob]

Beowulf is entirely CGI animated. There isn't one that is live action currently in theaters RangerRick.

[NotSoFast]

Are you aware that the 3-D is an animated version?
My son went to see it THursday night, and said that the 3-D version is animated. He said it was good, but really wanted to see the one with actual people.
As Rob said, both the 3-D IMAX and the "normal" screen versions are both animated. But they are animated very well. At first glance the people look real. We are not talking about "Disney" animation. :no:

Look here. (http://www.movietickets.com/movie_detail.asp?movie_id=51630&SearchZip=&SearchRadius=15&tstate=5&showdate=0&rel=)

[Kalbrecht]

Well, a bit late to the party but I finally saw it.

Loved it. Like Rob, I agree that you need to separate the movie version from the source material. The comparisons with 300 are quite apt, in that it's a story on its own.

As a history and literature buff, I wasn't comfortable with many of the technical changes, such as keeping Beowulf in the Danish kingdom (rather than travelling home a hero), his relationship with Wealthow, the changes to Unferth, and his 'son'. And so on and so forth. But then, the same part of me was horrified by 300. meh.

HOWEVER - like 300, thematically, they really hit a new level, and it brought a lot of the interpretations of Beowulf's tale to the forefront - the importance of kinship, hereditary rule. The impotence of the hero, and the pride (especially from that era). The changes to Grendel's mother were done extremely well, and fit perfectly into the themes. Brilliant stuff.

What I loved most was that they really made it the most epic, tall, 'big fish' tale you could ever tell. This fits perfectly with the epic of Beowulf.

Visually - when it was good it was magnificent. But when it was bad it looked like a bad copy of Shrek. Hrothgar's first appearance, the wenches and minor characters? They looked like the Ugly Stepsister in Shrek, or Kratos from God of War. A lot of the minor characters and horses lacked 'weight', while the water, the dragon and Beowulf's face were incredible. Grendel and the dragon were perfect - far better than I imagined and hoped. My wife was cringing when she saw Grendel.

A lot of reviews have been going crazy over the cgi, calling it the dawn of a new age. While I think that's a little overboard, I do agree we're hopefully seeing the start of something special - the dramatic fantasy epic. The character building was far more paced than Lord of the Rings, and I like to think that this means we'll get to see even more dramatic fantasy like Elric, coming to the movies.