Beowulf

Dir: Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Forrest Gump)
Cast: Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Angelina Jolie, Alison Lohman, Crispin Glover, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich
USA

Seen: December 4/07 at Scotiabank

Reason to see: It's Epic! It's Beowulf! Also nearing an end to my See 1 film a week in the theatre for a year, this is week 50/52.

I will be the first to admit I was surprized not to enjoy this film. Epic story, new/inventive visual technique of blending live action into animation and great characters. While all those are true, it did not hold my interest. I will note that is available to be seen in 3D and I saw it in a regular theatre setting (I can't see in 3D). I believe that if seen in 3D it would be a lot more fun, but in the regular theatre it's quite goofy seeing things flung directly at the screen. I also found the animation distraction - sometimes it looks animated, sometimes it looks so real that it felt inconsistent as a whole, and other than the 3D factor and I don't know why they would choose to do a film like that. That being said I did think the landscape and use of colour for the visuals was quite effective. I feel that the animation they used was like selective visual sampling, this face with that body and this voice. Which is such a shame, I think all of the actors involved would have provided us with a great film had it been live action.

Although there were a few good action sequences I was a little surprized by how some of them were treated. There was also a fair amount of gender crap, and of course with a story set in 507 AD I would expect that to some extent but this went a little beyond and a little bizarre. I wish they had focused more on the characters and the story rather than the spectacle.

Warnings: Violence, gender crap

There is a lot of shock-buzz about the fact that this film is rated PG-13, and that is the American rating because here in Canada it has a 14A rating, which I believe to be more appropriate. I don't usually comment on ratings but this film is quite violent and suggestive for PG-13.

Shannon's Overall View:
I thought it was goofy
I might watch it again if it was on
I'd recommend it as a fun movie for 3D and action fans

21 minutes of preshow including 14 commercials, and 5 previews : Wanted, Jumper, The Golden Compass, Cloverfield and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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