Sunday, November 25, 2007

Beowulf --- Movie Review


Two weeks after the Two Diwali Mega-Releases , I decided to take a break from Bollywood and preffered Beowulf over two other releases " Dhan Dhanadan Goal " and " Elizabeth - The Golden Age " just because it is a Robert Zemeckis flick and I am a huge fan of back to the future series and also Tom Hanks starrer "Forrest Gump" . Beowulf attempts to what well may be the future of Cinema , the Motion Capture Technique .

The movie is a nice blend of Animation and Realism which portrays very well , a World of Fantasy . The best part about this new technology is the way a scene can be shown through angles which any Camera can't reach . This technology can be and I think should be used in all the Sci-fi and Fantasy flix as it will enhance the viewing experience manifolds .

Well , enough about the technology , the movie starts off with a typical King's party in which there is enough wine and women . And during this party an unexpected guest comes , in the form of Demon and kills many people in a very brutal way . This whole brutality is stopped when the King Hrothgar , played by Anthony Hopkins , confronts the Demon Grendel which is played by Crispon Glover (who played George Mcfly in BTF series) . King Hrothgar closes the Royal Auditorium where the entire celebration takes place and announces an award for the person who would kill Grendel , the demon .

Then comes the Hero Beowulf played by Ray Winstone who has killed many such demons in the past and is not afraid of this one also . He falls for the beautiful Queen of the King , Wealtheow who hates the Old King . The King also makes Beowulf a hero in the town and trusts him blindly . The king promises Beowulf that if he kills the demon he can have the Queen for his life . Beowulf kills the demon as promised but gets a new surprise in the form of Angelina Jolie who plays the mother of Grendel and who is a monster herself . Then starts the whole sequence of Beowulf becoming a king which turns out to be a sort of a sin .

The whole movie is quite slow at pace apart from an exciting climax sequence which kinda makes up for the dullness of the middle portion of the movie . The movie scares you a little bit at times and has a lot of violence in it . Although , the violent scenes being animated don't make your stomach feel bad . The movie is a Visual treat with quite scenic picturesque and also beautiful use of colors . The whole experience is quite different and I can't imagine how incredible it would look in an 3D - IMAX theater .

The acting performances are also good and even though it is animated it still captures very well the emotions of characters . The eyes of queen
Wealtheow are very expressive and despite of very less dialogues the expressive eyes make up for the shortage of words . Anthony Hopkins very well portrays the character of a king . The main lead Ray Winstone has performed very well . He spoke like a Hero and the dialogue delivery was up to the mark .

The movie has a never ending type of end and leaves the viewer with a question in mind . The movie has an underlying message in a way which says that there is no need of demons when Human beings are themselves turning into ones .

Overall I wasn't very satisfied with the storyline considering the past track record of Robert Zemeckis yet the whole new experience made for it . I would recommend this movie just to experience a new kind of cinema .
This one is still worth a watch but only in Theaters , not on DVD .

Movie Rating : Two and Half Stars , for the fantastic climax sequence and the whole new style of cinema .


1 comment:

  1. Beowulf's animation was all around impressive, though the characters' movement reminded me a lot of Shrek. I appreciate the fact that this movie gives a pseudo-education in ancient literature (never had to read the book as a child)

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