Beowulf Review

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"Beowulf" reviews

Movie

Beowulf

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-11-16 15:40:37

Provider

Review

On one level Beowulf is an absolute sensory delight - a visual overload pulsating with 3D images, sweeping cameras and explosions burning your eyes.

Going back to the motion capture technology which Robert Zemeckis used in the critically divided movie The Polar Express in 2004, he has ironed out the flaws and made a substantial leap in the technological side. What he has also done, which brings us to the second level the film possesses, is allow room for the performances to develop.

There's real acting on show here, with even the understated little intricate moments fully realised - and it beggars belief how you can feel the weight of emotion on some of the actors shoulders when you consider they were prancing about in basically wet suits with little balls stuck on them.

Updating the classic English poem Beowulf that is so old it's olde, motion capture makes Ray Winstone, as the title character, look forty years younger with his moderately sized beer belly replaced with "an eight pack", Anthony Hopkins more agile as the ageing Hrothgar, John Malkovich as creepy as ever but with more hair and Angelina Jolie looking, well, exactly like Angelina Jolie, only more curvy. The latter really shows how far the technology has come when you easily forget it's not really her.

It's a thrilling tale that, while taking a little too bit long to get into, unfolds into something more substantial and weightier than the usual family fare. Don't worry though as they do end the picture with a staggeringly exciting fireball breathing dragon sequence.

If you can catch an iMax 3D screening you'll be lucky. If not try to see it on the biggest screen you can find as this is, for the most part, a genuine cinematic treat.