PREVIEW: Beowulf
November 16, 2007 by CAMERON HUBBARD
Filed under Variety
“THIS. IS. BEOWUULLLFFF!!!”
Errr.”SPARTAAAA!!!”
Indeed, upon viewing the trailer for Robert Zemeckis’s new film Beowulf, it would be easy to mistake Geatish warrior Beowulf for the alpha male King Leonidas from 300.
Intense muscular definition? Check.
Loud, masculinity-affirming catchphrases yelled out at that just-right moment? Check.
Creepy, deadly monster-human hybrids? Check.
While for many, the thought of the AngloSaxon poem Beowulf doesn’t bring much more than a grimace and memories of bygone high school English classrooms, for Robert Zemeckis, the director of Beowulf, and the writers of Beowulf, it was more like a call to make the latest early civilization action flick.
With a screenplay from Neil Gaiman, writer of the 2007 film Stardust and the Sandman series of comics, and Roger Avary, writer of the 2006 film Silent Hill, Zemeckis has certainly created a re-envisioned Beowulf.
Burning crosses, clouds of arrows and a daring bridge jump on horseback all make appearances in the trailer.
Of course, the sweeping scenes and intense action sequences are made all the easier by the fact that the film is entirely computer-generated.
Like the Zemeckis-produced film The Polar Express , Beowulf has absolutely no live-action sequences. One can only hope Beowulf will not end up as vaguely disturbing as the animation in Polar Express did (Seriously, watch it; Tom Hanks will never be the same).
Still, the film has drawn in some big names to lend their voices to the CGI characters. Anthony Hopkins lends his voice to King Hrothgar, the leader of the Danes who needs Beowulf’s help in defeating the evil monster Grendel, voiced by Crispin Glover.
Interestingly, the actress behind Grendel’s Mother is Angelina Jolie doing that obnoxious faux-British accent she has, which coincidentally, does sound like a forked-tongue alien trying to speak the Queen’s English.
Indeed, it appears that the writers took quite a bit of liberty with the role of Grendel’s Mother in the story. While it is probably fair to say that most who have read the poem think of her as a repulsive monster, Gaiman and Avary have re-envisioned her as a seductress who woos the Geatish warrior Beowulf, voiced by Ray Winstone.
The result of that wooing is way too absurd to even mention here, so we’ll keep mum on that. The Internet, however, is chock full of such spoilers if the curiosity is too much to bear.
While staunch medievalists may not be pleased with these kinds of liberties Gaiman and Avary took with the plot, it is doubtful most viewers will be bothered by the creative ways the writers filled the gaps in the original story.
Still, even if the script is not a problem, the film still appears to be little more than a fancy video-game-to-be (side note: Beowulf: The Game is also now available!). While CGI is certainly useful for creating intense action sequences, films also have a tendency to become more distant from the audience.
No matter how many fancy new tricks the technophiles in Hollywood come up with to make CGI look more photo-realistic, it is doubtful they will ever be able to recreate the intimacy that can be achieved by many live-action films.
Granted, the next action blockbuster would not likely suffer much if it went entirely to computers. However, movies that strive to connect with the audience simply do not work as well if nothing onscreen is actually real, and Beowulf, the poem, believe it or not, really is trying to say something.
Perhaps Zemeckis will prove the nay-sayers wrong, and Beowulf will bring about a revolution in the film industry. More than likely though, it will be in the “5 for $15″ bin by the time the next generation trudges through the poem in English class.
