I have to believe that every so often, right before falling off into dreamland, Robert Zemeckis, Roger Avary, and Neil Gaiman laugh their asses off. Why? Because I picture classrooms around the country with teacher’s desks piled high with book reports on Beowulf. In that stack of reports are the poorly worded musings of several students that thought they could pull a fast one. “Why read the poem when I can just watch the whiz-bang movie, and poof… I’m done?!” Then I see the teacher grading papers with a red pen held loosely in their tired hand. They slouch, send a hand to their brow and mumble, “Nooooo… the dragon baby of Beowulf and Angelina Jolie didn’t come looking for him after Hannibal Lecter dove out a window.”
So why did they change the story? Well according to the supplemental material on the DVD, they felt that since the story has an oral tradition of being passed on, it would naturally have changed over the years, and the movie was there chance to tell their take on the hero legend. In doing so they’ve tried to connect the unconnected dots of the poem, which in turn twists Beowulf, himself, towards the role of a flawed anti-hero. In reality, I think they were just trying to find something cool to animate that had swords, dragons, and a bit of legitimacy (I’m looking at you Eragon.)
The animation itself is impressive, but still a little unsettling (read about the Uncanny Valley.) The direction by Zemeckis, while quick to thrill, often made me feel like I was on a 3D ride first, and watching a movie second. I realize that when the movie was released, it was offered in 3D format for theaters that supported it, but repeated scenes with swords/spears poking out at the audience made me feel like I had time-warped back to the 1980’s.
The other major gripe that I have with the film is the fine line it tries to walk to maintain its PG-13 rating. I saw the director’s cut of the film on DVD, and while it was quite bloody, it went out of its way to intentionally block the genitalia of nude characters in a very distracting and juvenile way. During a major fight sequence it is established that Beowulf will do battle in the nude. When Grendel storms onto the scene, looking appropriately grotesque, Beowulf springs into action and in something right out of Austin Powers, has his groin repeatedly blocked out of frame by various, perfectly placed objects. Why would I be focused on Beowulf’s animated junk? Because just like the Austin Powers scene points out, when you go out of your way to cover it, like they did with a symbolic sword stuck in a table, you force the viewer to notice it. I get why they had to dance around the issue for the PG-13 rating, but if you’re that worried why not slap a loincloth on him or just toss the PG-13 rating out the window? If you can show the graphic dismemberment of a monster as well as some of its human victims, what harm are animated nipples and balls?
Overall the movie lands squarely in the average category for me. The creepy doll-eye faces often kept me from feeling any sort of attachment to the characters. Thankfully they gathered a pretty good collection of voices together, led by Ray Winstone as Beowulf, to overcome the staleness of the expressions. When not tightly focused on the faces of the characters, I found myself quite impressed by the action sequences, and liked the fact that they were willing to let the “camera” move around in 3D space. The reworked story is a little thin, but considering the source material, I suppose they did the best they could in trying to come up with a cohesive plot. Despite its 3D ride feel, I can’t deny that this is a bit of a step forward towards the goal of delivering realistic looking human characters in an animated world. Albeit a ball-less step, but a step nonetheless.