Beowulf giving boom for your action packed CGI buck

05 December 2007

Guest reviewer: Lee-Anne Raymond

If you’re expecting a faithful rendition of the Old English poem, Beowulf, you will quickly discover that Robert Zemeckis’ movie is probably more concerned with demonstrating what wonders can be achieved with the technology of performance capture. The film retains some key elements of the tale of course, but what we’re taken on is a spectacular CGI romp rather than an accurate retelling of the hero’s journey.

And when it comes to getting boom for your action packed CGI buck, Zemeckis’ Beowulf does deliver.

Having treated ourselves to the 3D version of the movie my companions and I found ourselves discussing which scenes were clearly created to exploit the 3D effect and how effective they did so, as much as we discussed the merits of the writing, direction and production. The technology used to create Beowulf is to be marvelled at and is, without a doubt, the most impressive aspect of the film.

It is not necessarily a criticism to observe either that the technology can itself be a distraction.

Problems that exist for Beowulf are generally in the more traditional areas of film making, with patchy writing and direction. The adaptation by Neil Gaiman and Robert Avery does fall a little short and is at times truly adolescent. Combined with a sometimes rough direction by Zemeckis the result can be a clash of styles that undermines a necessary suspension of disbelief. Although those who have never had a problem with George Lucas’ infamous ‘bar scene’ in Star Wars (Episode 4) may disagree, I found myself cringing at times, struggling to suspend my disbelief during some cartoonish moments. Amusingly, there is also a little of the ‘Ringside Wrestler’ school of acting (to quote one of my companions) in Ray Winston’s Beowulf, as with some of his retinue: stellar cast though they are, this is sometimes hard to swallow.

Happily, Grendel’s role does not disappoint. Grotesquely terrifying though he is, he is to be pitied for his pain and deformity as much as to be feared for his mindless, wanton and depraved destruction. The viewer is spared none of the gory detail as he pitilessly dispatches one Dane or Geat after the other. With each deadly tantrum though we witness the inner distress of the monster as he struggles with a stunted logic and lack of understanding of his own actions. Only his monstrous mother can soothe him. And in turn manipulate him.

When any animation that is not about penguins or bees attempts ironic humour it had better be done well. The poem does have touches of ironic humour and Beowulf’s bombast and exaggeration are successfully drawn out in the film. As in the poem, Beowulf’s version of events, emphasising his past bravery and exploits, is challenged by Unferth, a performance delivered with suitable menace by an almost unrecognisable John Malkovich. A noble Hrothgar, played with ease by Anthony Hopkins, is tormented by an inner evil and shame that plays a much greater role in the film than in the poem. His torment, symbolically associated with great power and hubris, is a moral torment which allows for a greater role in the story for Grendel’s Mother.

Played by Angelina Jolie, Grendel’s mother is quite simply breathtaking and it is possible to forgive some of the character inaccuracies (in the poem, Grendel’s mother is no Angelina Jolie!). Where the computer modelling is less than perfect however is with Hrothgar’s queen, played by Robin Wright Penn. Her presence is ethereal but there is something not quite true about her expressions or in the way in which she inhabits space, although this improves in later scenes. There is also a quality missing in the eyes of all of the CGI creations, the absence of a spark of ‘life’. More amusingly, there appears to be way too much botox in this computer enhanced and wrinkle-free world. Elsewhere the silent expressions that play across the characters’ faces, particularly of Hrothgar’s pride and inner shame, and Wiglaf’s dutiful pathos, are some of the many triumphs of the animators and these criticisms are the very picky footnotes of a viewer more taken with the successes of the performance capture film making technique than its failures. The computer animators and special effects technicians are most definitely the true stars of this movie.

Lee-Anne Raymond is an artist of the surreal and the fantastic based in Melbourne, Australia. The Surreal Art of Lee-Anne Raymond is an online exhibition of her art.

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