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Culturegasm: Beowulf

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  1.  (414.1)
    Wow. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary really wrote a hell of a script. Excellent mix of drama, comedy and epic. Not to mention the movie is fucking beautiful and the action scenes, incredible.

    Only letdown is director Robert Zemeckis being unable to hold back his impulses to show off. His camera exaggerates in several occasions.

    But it's a great, great epic. I enjoyed it immensely. And you?
  2.  (414.2)
    I really enjoyed the hell out of the film. It was a lot of fun, and Avery and Gaiman found a way to tweak the story just enough. However, the animation style was very uneven: at certain points it was incredibly convincing, and others it just suddenly looked awful for no reason I could explain.

    But overall, I really liked it.

    Opinion warning: I really loved the kind of "reverse Hero's Journey" (a la Joseph Campbell) in the metacontext. Instead of a boon from the Other World, Beowulf brings back a curse - his deal with Grendel's Mother.
  3.  (414.3)
    However, the animation style was very uneven: at certain points it was incredibly convincing, and others it just suddenly looked awful for no reason I could explain.


    I can explain it: motion capture on most elements on the screen. When it wasn't used, it sometimes looked terrible. Example: the fucking horses. That was one of the worst galloping animations I've ever seen. But overall the visual is breath-taking.

    Opinion warning: I really loved the kind of "reverse Hero's Journey" (a la Joseph Campbell) in the metacontext. Instead of a boon from the Other World, Beowulf brings back a curse - his deal with Grendel's Mother.


    I agree, I liked that too.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAlexis
    • CommentTimeDec 31st 2007
     (414.4)
    The story was good, and the men looked pretty good, but all of the women looked like shit. They didn't show a lot of facial emotion and Angelina Jolie/Grendel's mother looked really silly. She looked like a Michel Turner drawing with heels growing out of her feet.
    • CommentAuthorPooka
    • CommentTimeDec 31st 2007
     (414.5)
    I was apprehensive going in, but screaming "I AM BEOWULF!!!" afterwards as passing strangers...
    I loved it. I can't wait to get the dvd. It was deffinately an interesting take on the old legend...
    I was so happy that it had the "feel" of beowulf...the over the top grandious bad assery that was beowulf...because...not only did he defeat a grendel with his bare hands...he killed a giant gold dragon by cutting his own arm off, reaching into it's chest, and smashing it's heart with his bare hands. I mean...even the eighties muscle heros weren't that bad ass. :P
    fuck Gilgamesh...Beowulf was the first real bad ass...:P
    • CommentAuthorsacredchao
    • CommentTimeDec 31st 2007 edited
     (414.6)
    I haven't seen it yet, but I hope to. My only worry is that it is a Zemeckis movie. In my opinion, Zemeckis is a third-rate knock off of Spielberg, whose own place as a hack was confirmed by War of the Worlds. I'm hopeful that Gaiman and Avery can rescue the movie from him though.
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      CommentAuthorUnsub
    • CommentTimeDec 31st 2007
     (414.7)
    I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.
    It is worth seeing just for Gaimans fantastic retelling of the Beowulf saga. The way he wove the actual sagas story into the plot for the movie and made it so that the public version of events
    when retold by the characters in the movie was incredible. Neil not only knew the original saga but also had enough feel for the characters to make it all work. I did not much like the animation but I did not find it detracted from the show enough to bother me. I did not like 300 at all though.
    • CommentAuthorsacredchao
    • CommentTimeDec 31st 2007
     (414.8)
    I did not like 300 at all though.
    Me either. It was a silly hodgepodge of every war movie cliche ever.
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      CommentAuthorRachel
    • CommentTimeJan 1st 2008
     (414.9)
    We made an evening of seeing Beowulf. We started with a whole roast suckling pig (14kg) with all the sides and traditional starters (tuna/salmon/herring on rye) at a Scandinavian restaurant then saw the movie in 3d.

    I quite liked it but couldn't stop giggling at the end when the person next to me whispered "Beowulf died like he lived - With no pants"

    I think that summed things up nicely.
  10.  (414.10)
    In my opinion, Zemeckis is a third-rate knock off of Spielberg, whose own place as a hack was confirmed by War of the Worlds.


    I'm all for respecting opinions, SacredChao, but Steven Spielberg, a hack? With his filmography? E.T, Schindler's List, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Munich, Jaws and so on and so forth? As for Zemeckis, the Back to the Future trilogy, Cast Away and Forrest Gump. How can those guys - who innovated Cinema in countless ways and who are imitated by hundreds of other filmmakers - be hacks? If you want hacks, here you go:

    Paul W. S. Anderson, writer and director of Alien vs. Predator, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, writer of Resident Evil 2 and director of Event Horizon.

    Uwe Boll, responsible for Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead and Bloodrayne.

    Simon Kinberg, writer of Fantastic Four (uncredited) and Mr. and Ms. Smith.

    And that's just to name a few.

    I don't like Stanley Kubrick, but I'd never consider him a hack - his contributions to Cinema were many. I think he's a bad storyteller, but a brilliant technical director. So, I respect him. If you don't like Spielberg or Zemeckis, that's okay. But they deserve at least some respect, because their contributions to Cinema might have inspired filmmakers you like. Spielberg, who I think is one of the best filmmakers alive, was inspired by Kubrick.
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      CommentAuthorUnsub
    • CommentTimeJan 1st 2008
     (414.11)
    I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.
    I love Kubrick, his images are incredible. Barry Lyndon was amazing ,Full Metal Jacket was way better than Apocalypse now and Clockwork Orange was
    one of the most important films of my life.

    The thing about beowulf that was great was the writing and how it worked with the actual saga. Knowing the saga made the movie much better than if you just knew there was a saga.
  12.  (414.12)
    I love Kubrick, his images are incredible. Barry Lyndon was amazing ,Full Metal Jacket was way better than Apocalypse now and Clockwork Orange was
    one of the most important films of my life.


    His images ARE incredible, but try as I might, I just can't like Kubrick. While this didn't bother some, the change of pace in the middle of Full Metal Jacket destroyed the film for me. I know it was intentional, but the fact it's intentional doesn't mean it was a good idea. And I love the first half. So it was a shame. I liked 2001, but it was style over substance. Yes, a HELL of a style, but all the same. The Shining could have been way better, if you read the book. I know book-to-film adaptations are rarely better than the source material, but the movie could have been, and it wasn't. It's a good film, and that's all. As for A Clockwork Orange, the movie seems aimless, with no purpose. And the way the main characters talk is beyond annoying. It is, though, one of Kubrick's best works aesthetically. The scene where the characters are walking toward us in slow-motion, and Alex suddenly turns and fights with them is incredible.

    But I acknowledge his importance for Cinema, so I respect him. I'll keep watching his movies, maybe in the future I'll start liking them.
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      CommentAuthorRantz
    • CommentTimeJan 1st 2008
     (414.13)
    I went to one of the 'press and invite' screening at the Universal IMAX in 3d...

    god I'm glad I made the trip through HELL-ay traffic for it.

    Since I started working in 3D 15 years ago, I've hardly ever been able to turn off the analytical part of my brain, dissecting every shot, thinking stupid shit like 'well, the specular channel on that model is shit, no wonder it looks like plastic' and so on.

    Despite the flaws at times in the CG, BEOWULF was the first film in a LOG time that by the end, I was just along for the ride, enjoying it.

    I can only hope that its success leads to more, and better, adult-geared CG films.
    • CommentAuthorAngurvaki
    • CommentTimeJan 2nd 2008
     (414.14)
    Entertaining movie, even though I didn't see it in 3D.

    ... but where the hell did they find mountains in Denmark?
    • CommentAuthorpi8you
    • CommentTimeJan 2nd 2008
     (414.15)
    Angurvaki -

    Neil Gaiman answered this about a month ago, basically, its in the poem, so its in the movie.

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