I Am BEOwulf, I Am Da Law
Posted on | November 24, 2007 at 9:58 pm | 1 Comment
You’ll have to give me a bit of a pass on the daily post. Attending the second funeral in a little over a month of a friend taken too soon has not really put me in the writing mood. Plus, I spent the afternoon shopping, and you know what kind of mood that puts me in. Well, maybe you don’t, but you should. It looks like I’ll get this one in under the wire though…
As I mentioned yesterday, I saw the 3D IMAX version of Beowulf. I agree with most of the review on Foma*, so read that one instead of expecting some meaningful, unique words from me. A couple of points of difference: I think they did a pretty good job with the CGI hair overall, especially on the closeup scenes of beards (of which were there were many near the end). But yeah, the hair on the women didn’t look very real. I’m still not sure what to think of the 3D aspect. At first, it does seem like a distracting gimmick, but after awhile it draws you in and almost seems natural. Combined with the huge IMAX screen, it really does feel like you’re inside that mythological world, even to the point where you experience things happening off to the side and behind you. But I’d like to compare it to the non 3D version and see if I enjoy it as much. Is it the future of cinema, like some filmmakers (James Cameron) seem to think, or just another fad revival? I can’t say, but I’ll enjoy figuring it out.
The way that the characters resembled their voice actors (except in the case of Beowulf/Ray Winstone) was very immersive, but it kind of made me wonder what the point of animating it was. (I know, I know, there’s a lot of stuff in there that just couldn’t be done in live action, like the intense fight scenes.) And despite what some have said, Angelina Jolie’s “avatar” (Grendel’s mom) is not actually fully naked in this movie. (You could see much more of her in the movie Taking Lives, for example). But that’s not a reason to avoid this movie! John Malkovich’s adviser turned Christian priest is an especially interesting character with a somewhat unexpected arc.
The story had more depth than I thought it would, especially in the way it commented on the way myths are made. Actually, I should’ve expected that, since Neil Gaiman co-wrote it. I’ve never read the heroic poem on which the story is based, so I’m not sure how closely it hews to it. But I have a pretty good idea of what Gaiman and Roger Avary changed (the hero is not quite as heroic as the poem would have you believe). But mostly, the flick is enormously satisfying eye candy. It made me feel good to be a human, sitting in a huge theater with a bunch of other humans, all of us wearing funny glasses and sharing in a legendary experience.
Jogged Today: No, slept in.
Today’s Weight: 162.8 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: None.
Pet Peeve of the Day: All fitting rooms need a bench outside of them where the poor males can sit while waiting for their women to finish trying on a bucketload of clothes.
Latre.
Comments
One Response to “I Am BEOwulf, I Am Da Law”
November 25th, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
For a non-review, that is pretty detailed and I agree with most of it. It still bugs me how plastic the women look compared to the men. Some CGI geek has his ideal woman-meter turned too high towards Jessica Rabbit. But they got Angelina just right.