Beowulf
Rated: PG-13
[This is a review of the 3-D version of the film which is clearly the version that director Robert Zemeckis intended as the "true" version. While the film is available in 2-D, such a screening would be a waste of time. The film won't be bad, but you're losing an entire dimension and for once, that actually matters] 3-D is no longer a novelty. It's also no longer nauseating. Gone are the red-blue glasses that induced splitting headaches as your rods and cones scrambled to make sense of this dimension-shattering phenomenon. Also gone are the films that took Digital 3-D (the 3-D that doesn't make you want to vomit) out for a test drive but were never intended for the process. Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf proves that while 3-D may not be ready to overtake all of cinema, it's ready to be taken seriously as more than a gimmick. I've never read the original tale of Beowulf since reading is for squares. But as adapted by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman, the story follows renowned warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he attempts to rid a remote kingdom of the hideous monster Grendel (Crispin Glover). Unfortunately, Grendel has a mommy (Angelina Jolie) far more terrifying and powerful than her monstrous son. Beowulf never permanently breaks free of its "look-at-me-be-3-D!" awareness as there's one-too many shots of knives and spears jutting into your face or having of characters coming straight-on into frame so that their horses can kick the earth off the screen because it looks cool. Then there's the complaint towards Zemeckis' last mo-cap outing The Polar Express: taking real actors and then giving them dead eyes. But unlike Express where it felt unnecessary, Zemeckis is now doing things he could never do with real actors and he's trying to push this technology forward. It doesn't always work but there are times where those dead eyes flicker to life and it's a sign that it's not impossible to take these life-like animations and truly make them live. It's a creepy thought but it's also very cool. What's most admirable about Beowulf is that Zemeckis is venturing into the unknown and trying to find a cinematic language for 3-D. Sometimes it gets away from him but that's the fun of the journey. But the times when Zemeckis nails it and uses the 3-D to create an endless depth-of-field that enhances the film-going experience, it's truly magical and further proof that while this may not be the next step on cinema's evolutionary path, it's certainly a fascinating mutation nonetheless. If not for one hilariously awful scene where Zemeckis goes out of his way to cover up Beowulf's junk, I could rate the film higher because the technical missteps of the film would be forgivable as they're in service to the film's innovation and exploration of new territory. But even with that prudish screw-up, Beowulf is not only a fascinating work for film buffs, but an entertaining film that's like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Words by |