Awesome. Natural 20's just about every battle scene.
This will open the gates to what can now be done with CGI advancement
i.e The Elric Saga
My friend and I decided to get drunk before we watched it. I liked it, but lost interest after while. See spoiler.
So, bad story, cool CGI? Is that the verdict?
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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So, bad story, cool CGI? Is that the verdict?
I didn't have a problem with the story. It's exactly what it was supposed to be: an epic tale of a legendary hero and warrior who succumbs to hubris and exhibits mortal flaws like anyone else would. I thought it was great all around.
I really, really liked it. Instant DVD purchase. The story was...well, classic, and one that many people probably know anyway. This is actually the first negative take on it that I've read...
The story is OK.
The CG however is ...weird.
There are moments where it makes you go "WOW!!" and other scenes where you say "Ugh. Looks like Playstation 2".
Its like more effort was put into certain scenes than others. Or maybe certain effects teams were assigened to certain scenes and some teams did a good job and other...well..not so good.
I was watching the special features for Final Fantasy a few years ago (different movie, I know, but stil...), and various scenes used different rendering processes depending on the needs of that scene. Sometimes motion capture was used, sometimes "hand" animation, etc.
I remember while watching Beowulf thinking the quality of the animation did seem very uneven...in places subtle facial nuances were visible, and in others faces looked very wooden. The worst offenders were the scenes which were clearly totally generated...physically impossible longs shots and such.
But some animation issues aside, I highly recommend the movie for fantasy fans...
The story is OK.
The CG however is ...weird.
There are moments where it makes you go "WOW!!" and other scenes where you say "Ugh. Looks like Playstation 2".
Its like more effort was put into certain scenes than others. Or maybe certain effects teams were assigened to certain scenes and some teams did a good job and other...well..not so good.
My brother had the exact same impression after he saw it. He said the story was alright but it was made worse by the fact that half the CGI was great and the other half was excellent. He felt like half the movie was distorted.
The movie kicks ass.
The movie kicks ass.
yes it did!
I have yet to see the movie...though I am ironically reading Michael Crichton's 'Eaters of the Dead' at this very moment.
Its good to see some positive reviews. I had heard some bad things, mostly from folks who aren't fantasy fans going to see it. Kinda hard to like Beowulf if you are both not a fantasy or historical fan. I really shouldn't have listened to anything said by that particular person.
I am thinking I will have to just go see it and decide for myself.
Didn't realize it was computer generated until I got there. Overall people were great, voices fantastic, monsters terrible (Grandal and the dragon), story excellent. Nude scenese really should have been left out. Excellent background animation. Great meadhall. Loved the fights being so epic. Best part of the movie. Wished it had been live people, change a few lines. 50% great, 50% terrible, kinda a strange mix.
I saw the 2D version (3D gives me a headache - go figure). I think overall the story was pretty good. The source material is pretty disjoint, so they did a good job of creating a backstory that tied everything together. The animation was good, but strange. The eyes and mouths still look a little fake. It reminds me of watching video game cut scenes. In fact, all the battles were very video-game-like (like watching someone play God of War). Seeing Hrothgar's nude rear was not high on my list. And seeing Beowulf fight nude, while various objects conveniently hid his naughty bits reminded me of Austin Powers (yeah baby!) Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, not nude nearly enough! (*sigh*). Grendel looked - strange. Like a half troll / flesh golem maybe? And he talked like Bobcat Goldthwait, what's up with that?! The dragon fight at the end was worth the price of admission, however - very cool. :-)
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I wrote a quick review for my professor (had to attend a parent-teacher night, as the teacher, and couldn't be in class - this was my surrogate).
A bit long for the forums but what the hey!
Spoilers ahead!!!
Gaiman’s Beowulf is a Tragedy
On Sunday morning, I purchased a bargain matinee ticket at $7.50 for the latest iteration of Beowulf, now crafted for the silver screen. As one interested in Old English literature and the genre of the heroic epic, I was skeptical about the cinematic treatment of a literary classic and reluctant to watch the potential marring of a significant work of art and poetry. Driven by the subtle prompting of my mentor and professor, I approached the situation with the lowest of possible expectations and, with ten more dollars worth of popped corn and syrupy libations, I entered the virtually empty theatre.
To my astonishment, a couple had brought their young child to screen the film and I shuddered as the previews for Cloverfield, I am Legend, and a variety of terrifying images and haunting screeches filled the nearly vacant theatre. Surely the child would sustain permanent damage from the horrors unleashed at such intense volumes and frame rates. Perhaps, they hoped to breed a new race of desensitized and violent human. It was Beowulf, after all. Surely the Geats would approved.
The film opened with scenes of the Mead-Hall, soon to be named Heorot, and earnestly strove to depict the revelry and indulgence characteristic of such a scenario. Darkness, flickering flames, and raucous drinking filled the screen, while dogs searched out scraps and hale men leered at Scandinavian wenches. The debauchery intensified as Hrothgar, dressed in a simple draping of cloth, was carried aloft in his throne-chair by thanes into the crowded hall. However, the overt gluttony and hedonism of the Danish king seemed gauche and wreaked of intention, as indirect characterization often is in Hollywood cinema. The Romanesque and corrupt Hrothgar seemed better suited to the pulp fiction of Robert E. Howard and his tales of the Cimmerian barbarian, Conan or the bathhouses of a faltering and burning Latin empire. Similarly, his disaffected and crestfallen wife seemed to be chiseled in the sculpt of the shamed and sullen woman of so many filmic representations.
While the plotline of the film seemed relatively faithful to the skeleton of the narrative, as Beowulf progressed, I was struck by a sudden realization. The film was not the tale of the hero told in the literary genre of epic poetry, where the protagonist represents the values of the culture. This narrative followed the unmistakable and archetypal formula of the tragedy. This was particularly apparent when Beowulf of the Geats succumbed to temptation, a fatal flaw foreshadowed in his infatuation with Hrothgar’s wife and sealed with the kiss of a shapeshifting Troll-Wife of serpentine proportions. Upon reflection, the introduction included the requisite exposition and rising action, as the primary internal and external conflicts unfurled with telltale predictability, while the turning point was represented in the tryst engaged in deep in the darkness of the mere/grotto. Suddenly, the flawed hero, a victim of his own caprice and hubris, descended into inner despair and anguish while his personal and regal fortunes rose to the soaring heights of legend. Yet, the fall from grace, accelerated by Beowulf’s self-loathing, seemed eerily analogous to a Shakespearean Macbeth and betrayed all the trappings of the falling action of an Act IV.
True to form, in Act V, the hero redeems himself and, having sacrificed himself to save his folk, allows good to triumph over evil. All in little more than two hours, just like a performance at “The O.”
However, Hollywood has a bizarre tendency to perpetuate itself and, as the film comes to a close, the faithful and forgiving Wiglaf, now King, is captivated by the lure of the temptress serpent. The woman in water seems to pierce the stoic defenses of the newly crowned King and,
in an extremely protracted end sequence, the two lock eyes with Wiglaf clutching the dragon horn that has come to signify the seduction of power and corruption of the tryst. A potential sequel?
Scriptwriter and Executive Producer, Neil Gaiman, famous for his work with the Sandman comic book series and novels including American Gods, retools the English epic for the modern cinema-goer with many of Hollywood’s time tested techniques and the film’s director fashions the film with the latest computer-generated graphics and simple but compelling sets. Certainly, the ambiguities of the epic poem lend themselves to interpretation and Gaiman exploits these vagaries in his variation on a tale, creating plot points and characterization from shallow wells in between the lines of verse. While the runes and rings, an homage to the Beowulf poet, strive to create verisimilitude, the strange amalgamation of Old English and Modern English, spoken in sibilant hisses and gurgles by Grendel, played by the sinister Crispin Glover, and the Troll-Wife, played by Angelina Jolie, likely contributes to a confusing and unusual theatrical experience for the uninitiated viewer.
Watch for Unferth’s gradual de-evolution into a sanctimonious and servile member of the Believers, as Christianity expands Northward, not so subtly foreshadowed in the exposition.
The film’s best line? “The question is who would win in knife fight, Odin or the Christ Jesus?”
My money is on the original All-Father and his ravens.
If you want to skip the film, but harbor a curiosity regarding the retelling of the nordic tale, check out the comic book companion to Beowulf from IDW publishing, available at Newbury Comics. Nice artwork.
Still need more? Check out www.playbeowulf.com for the multi-platform video game of the film. The franchise continues.
Still more?
Beowulf action figures from McFarlane Toys. Chose from Young Beowulf, Grendel,Grendel’s Mother, and the Dragon. I have my eye on the 6” alien and serpentine casting of Grendel’s Mother. Check it out at www.mcfarlane.com.
More?
How about Beowulf prop replicas, from Diamond Select Toys, including Beowulf’s crown, Hrunting, and the Golden Dragon Horn, sculpted by Acme Design Inc.? Visit www.diamondselecttoys.com to purchase your piece of film history.
With low expectations, I walked out of the theatre a little poorer but not unhappy, impressed only by the knowledge that I know a tragedy when I see one. LOL
Overall--wait for DVD. The story was brought together well (but not great) and it was not Beowulf. I recently saw a T that said 'never judge a book by its movie'. This was a good argument for that practice.
I recently saw a T that said 'never judge a book by its movie'. This was a good argument for that practice.
Starship Troopers. Enough said.
I recently saw a T that said 'never judge a book by its movie'. This was a good argument for that practice.Starship Troopers. Enough said.
The problem with Starship Troopers the movie is that it was AwEsOmE.
The problem with Starship Troopers the book is that it was aWeSoMe.
The problem with Starship Troopers the movie is that it was AwEsOmE.
The problem with Starship Troopers the book is that it was aWeSoMe.
Heh.
Starship Troopers (the movie) was a mediocre sci-fi film with great (CGI) special effects for the time.
Starship Troopers (the book) was a great novel that examined the subjects of citizenship and service. It was also groundbreaking in that it had women commanding starships (it was published in the 1960s).
Apart from a few names and a little flavor, the movie and the book are very different. Pissed me off, too. They could have made a superb film from the book, instead of a ho-hum movie with flashy special effects.
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I saw Beowulf yesterday and I'm with the circle that believes the CGI was uneven. I found myself constantly judging the images instead of letting my brain relax and have my eyes be locked in on the movie. The one thing that impressed me was that I literally jumped everytime Grendel screamed. Crispin has that effect anytime he opens his mouth I guess.
I am thinking I will have to just go see it and decide for myself.
Have you seen it?
If so, what say you now?
Starship Troopers (the movie) was a mediocre sci-fi film with great (CGI) special effects for the time.
Gah! I liked it. But then I have pretty low tastes... well outside of my teaching literature. I guess it's a need for brain-off time.
Now Beowulf, I'll be teaching that again next session, yikes! The original story is pretty straight forward: a story that taught young men what it means to be a man, so I'm expecting to see some good barbarian role-modeling, not a suspense thriller.
Gah! I liked it. But then I have pretty low tastes...
Starship Troopers (the movie) was a mediocre sci-fi film with great (CGI) special effects for the time.
It wasn't bad, but it was a pretty standard sci-fi special effects flick. I like my movies with more plot depth and character development, especially if the movie is based on a good book.
It wasn't bad, but it was a pretty standard sci-fi special effects flick. I like my movies with more plot depth and character development, especially if the movie is based on a good book.
Don't want to sound like a smart-arse here, but the movie had far more depth of plot and character development than the original poem, which was more along the lines of: "Big guy pulls monster's arm off, kills it's mum, becomes king, and then years later for no apparent reason a dragon comes and he kills that too but dies in the battle."
I thought plotwise it made a much more compelling story than the original, and I've loved the original since I was a kid. All the events seemed justified by other events, for a start. In the original it just seems, to quote the Simpsons, "just a bunch of stuff that happened." What else can you expect from Neil Gaiman though? That dude just gets better and better.
I liked it, but I saw it in 3D. In 2D I imagine it probably just looks odd.
It wasn't bad, but it was a pretty standard sci-fi special effects flick. I like my movies with more plot depth and character development, especially if the movie is based on a good book.Don't want to sound like a smart-arse here, but the movie had far more depth of plot and character development than the original poem, which was more along the lines of: "Big guy pulls monster's arm off, kills it's mum, becomes king, and then years later for no apparent reason a dragon comes and he kills that too but dies in the battle."
Ah but Dragonchess Player was referring to Starship Troopers not Beowulf. :)
I loves Starship Troopers BTW. It made no sence of course. Why arm a soldier with a machine gun that requires the whole clip to kill just one bug when hundreds of them are running around? Its was mindless but great.
Didnt like the book at all. But then again it might be because it wasnt what I expected. Its all about being in the military and the battles arent really in the book. Its almost like between chapters the good stuff happens and you get "yesterday was a huge battle. Its over now so I'll spend the chapter going on and on about boring military stuff."
To each his own i guess.
I loves Starship Troopers BTW. It made no sence of course. Why arm a soldier with a machine gun that requires the whole clip to kill just one bug when hundreds of them are running around? Its was mindless but great.
Didnt like the book at all. But then again it might be because it wasnt what I expected. Its all about being in the military and the battles arent really in the book. Its almost like between chapters the good stuff happens and you get "yesterday was a huge battle. Its over now so I'll spend the chapter going on and on about boring military stuff."
To each his own i guess.
To be fair, it's far more difficult to write a good battle scene for a book than for a film. Also, the focus of the book isn't on the battles; the details that are given are appropriate to the viewpoint of the protagonist and to the advancement of the plot.
The book was written in the 1960's, when science fiction (including the original Star Trek) was much more into social commentary and the examination of the human condition than flash and action.
Ah but Dragonchess Player was referring to Starship Troopers not Beowulf. :)
Oops, sorry!
Er... carry on.