Like a child playing with a new toy on Christmas morning, director Robert Zemeckis has a field day with the new and improved motion-capture animation in Beowulf. Backed by a huge budget, he can’t be blamed for wanting to flex his creative muscles. As if the animation weren’t enough, it is even taken to the next level with 3-D. Sensory overload rules the day in this re-telling of the fabled epic. Too bad that the story has to play third fiddle to the creative elements and the over-hyped starlet Angelina Jolie.
The story begins with a lively drunken feast in the court of the portly King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins). Present are the king’s army and the sighs of his ambivalent wife Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn—can’t tell if her lack of expression is from the animation or botox). The party is interrupted by a hideous demon named Grendel (Crispin Glover) who systematically annihilates the army before retreating back to his mountaintop abode. The survivors are in need of a hero.
Enter Beowulf (Ray Winstone), man of legends who arrives with his men to defeat Grendel and preserve the kingdom for the sake of the King. The thickly ripped Beowulf never misses an opportunity to strip down to the buff and he does just that as he lays down at night to await the return of Grendel. When he does, Beowulf is there to meet him in all his, ahem, glory that is strategically covered through different visual obstacles during the battle. Beowulf achieves the impossible and manages to slay the powerful Grendel, and his legend grows.
But hell hath no fury like a mother who has lost her son, and Beowulf must contend with Grendel’s vengeful mother (Angelina Jolie). Confronting Beowulf in her mountain lair, she slithers out of the water, plastered head to toe in shimmering gold and sporting spiked heels. In the hypnotic grip of a seductress, the mighty Beowulf is putty in her hands as she makes a deal with Beowulf. The parallel to the temptation of Jesus by the devil in His 40 days in the wilderness is striking with one exception: our hero here falls for the false promises.
There is literary license from the original text taken here by the screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction) as the humanity and fallibility of Beowulf is explored more in depth. Beowulf describes himself as “just a man—fallible and flawed.” Religous overtones are toned down and dismissed altogether: in an early scene, a soldier asks, “Shall we pray to Christ Jesus?” He is told, “No… the gods will do nothing for us that we can’t do for ourselves.” The biggest leap of creative writing is an open-ended conclusion which leaves the door open for a sequel and minimalizes the victory over evil.
The biggest distraction, though, remains the filmmaking. Although an improvement upon the similarly animated The Polar Express, there is still much to be desired from the technology. Movements are still choppy and it fails to capture true emotion whether it is joy, anger, or sadness. As with most 3-D films, the first twenty minutes or so are consumed with thrusting every possible object at the camera. Thankfully, things settle down as the movie rolls along. Being a heroic tale full of bravery, this film would have made the perfect vehicle for a pre-teen to teen-age boy. However, the crude (and completely unnecessary) references to cleavage, sexuality, and phallic imagry make it tough to justify. Which brings us back to the opening battle with Beowulf and Grendel. We all know that the portly Winstone is not the posterboy for six-pack abs. But did the creative forces need to have him in the nude?! The Austin Powers-like covering of his nether-regions detracted from the power of the scene as the audience was howling with laughter instead of holding its breath in nervous anticipation.
It is all unfortunate because there is much to be admired about the film. The desire and, yes, the necessity for a conquering hero to destroy the forces of darkness resonates within us all as we see the world’s ills. Our spirits soar when we see the bravery of one who is willing to sacrifice even himself for the sake of the many—in this case, a kingdom. Even as Beowulf makes right the mistakes he made in a moment of weakness, he demonstrates that redemption comes with a steep price. In Beowulf, under the Hollywood-glitz of technology, mind-blowing effects and titillating visuals, it is still the simplicity of a hero’s story that will last with an audience long after the 3-D glasses have been tossed away.
