Shortly after the dedication of their new mead hall, King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) and his subjects are savagely attacked by the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover). Hearing of the attacks, the legendary Geat warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone), whose late father owed a Hrothgar a debt, assembles his men and travels to Denmark to slay the beast. Beowulf proves successful in his mission, but soon finds himself faced with a more daunting task: defeating Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie), a shape-shifting demon who has taken on a most pleasing form.

CRITIQUE

Like most people in the Western world, my only real exposure to the epic poem “Beowulf” came during high school English. My class didn’t wade through the entire length of the work, but were instead exposed to some of the original Old English prose and then shown the corresponding modern translation. And my teacher did run through a summary of the plot, some of which I do remember, which is why I know that at best this film version is a loose, action-charged adaptation of its source material, and at worst is a revisionist bastardization. In the end the former overcomes the latter, but the latter is still unnecessary and ill-conceived enough to harm the movie.

Breaking the movie down into its two major components, the big action set pieces work, most everything else doesn’t. Both the first attack by Grendel and his eventual encounter with Beowulf work incredibly well, as does the account of the hero’s meeting with the sea creatures. But the real highpoint of the movie is the late-inning battle between Beowulf and the dragon.

Things begin simply enough, with the huge beast doing little more than charring everything in sight, but really becomes something spectacular once Beowulf hops onto the creature’s back. It’s here that Zemeckis and his animators really go for broke with their CG tools, swooping and zooming the camera (or its digital approximation) into the thick of the battle, giving it an immediacy and intensity that quite likely would have been impossible in a live action film.

But screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery make several needless alterations to the characters and plot. As portrayed here, Beowulf is no longer simply a great hero; in fact, his status as a hero is highly questionable, as the tales of his exploits appear to have been greatly exaggerated, if not completely untrue. The lineages of both Grendel and the dragon receive new wrinkles, wrinkles that are both obvious and clichéd, employing the by now standard sins-of-the-father plotting modern writers love to apply to tales from the days of yore.

A new romantic subplot goes absolutely nowhere, the decision to make Grendel more tortured soul than true monster is by no means novel, and you can see the story’s coda long before a certain character (whose fate is also changed here) reappears. I’d expect this sort of lame writing from Avery, the tales of whose coattail-riding gain more and more credence as the years go by, but Gaiman has made a name for himself by putting brilliant spins on familiar material, so it’s surprising to see him phone it in.

Both his prose and comics work have utilized stories and archetypes from every corner of the globe to construct new mythologies, yet here he simply takes the easy way out. To make matters worse, Gaiman and Avery’s portrayal of Beowulf is often at odds with that of Zemeckis, who quite obviously sees the character as a hero in the ancient mold. He’s a fallible, boastful, vainglorious man whenever he has his feet on the ground, but he’s an unstoppable god whenever he goes into action.

Maybe there’s a postmodern dichotomy or commentary here that’s I’m missing, but I still say the portrayal is too schizophrenic for its--and the movie’s--own good. (I will give Avery and Gaiman props for one decision, and that’s the idea to have Grendel speak in Old English, which is both cool and unsettling at the same time.)             

The performance capture technique employed here has improved dramatically since Zemeckis first used it in The Polar Express, but there’s still a long way to go before it completely approximates the intricacies and minutiae of human expressions (if it indeed ever does, which I highly doubt). Some of the characters look as if they’re wearing life masks, while some are so doughy and inexpressive they look as they were stung by a swarm of bees and then received Botox injections shortly thereafter.

And while movements that are based on the actual actions of the actors generally look fine, those created entirely in the digital realm (i.e., the more outlandish acrobatic feats) are sometimes stiff and jerky. There are also times when the animation itself looks unfinished or too cartoony (Beowulf’s breakneck horseback charge to catch up with the dragon looks like an outtake from Shrek).

Many filmgoers cried foul when Beowulf hit theaters with a PG-13 rating, although they should have seen it coming, as no studio exec in their right mind would pony up 150 million dollars for an R-rated animated feature. (There’s a reason Ralph Bakshi hasn’t made a movie in more than a decade.)

But this release restores the naughtier bits Zemeckis was forced to remove in order to keep the rating down, so here you’ll find more blood and gore and a heightened sexual content (nice to see that the Zemeckis who made Used Cars is still out there somewhere). So if your young ones are begging to see the cartoon about the man with the sword who fights the ugly monster, don’t cave. There’s definitely stuff here no pre-teen should see.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer is, in a word, perfect. Sourced directly from the digital files, the image here is beautifully detailed, with an illusion of depth that’s never less than staggering. The visuals are dark, with exteriors dominated by the ashy Danish skies and interiors lit only by fires; the grays, icy blues and earth tones are all rendered flawlessly, and blacks are deep and inky throughout.

The few bright colors that do pop up--crimson squirts of blood, the blue flames that signal Grendel’s arrival, the golden skin of the dragon--also come through with no blemishes whatsoever. And even the smallest details woven into the animation are readily apparent. This will undoubtedly go down as one of 2008’s best next-gen transfers.

THE AUDIO

Anyone bemoaning the absence of a lossless audio track here will undoubtedly change their tune after sampling this disc’s killer Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track. This is the strongest Dolby Digital Plus tracks I’ve come across, topping even that of the Transformers disc. It’s immersive and active from the outset, with the opening notes of Alan Silvestri’s booming score swelling throughout the soundstage.

The action sequences consistently deliver, with the mayhem filling every channel; the quieter moments are vividly atmospheric, with carefully placed ambient sounds serving to create a living, breathing environment. Dialogue, even in the midst of the action, always comes through clearly. French and Spanish Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks are also included. English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The lone extra on Disc One of this 2-disc set is Beowulf in the Volume:

This Picture-in-Picture feature runs concurrent with the movie, contrasting corresponding raw footage (i.e., the actors performing on the motion capture stage) or rough versions of the animation (which is generally a couple steps up from animatics, but nowhere near as polished as the finished footage) with the movie itself. I doubt anyone will want to sit through two hours of it, but skipping around to the bigger scenes makes for an interesting experience.    

On Disc Two you’ll find the following:

Eleven deleted scenes (13 minutes total), presented in very rough form, offer extraneous character moments and superfluous transitional bits.

A Hero’s Journey: The Making of Beowulf (25 minutes) is a behind-the-scenes featurette that focuses primarily on the performance capture work. The entire performance capture process--from the application of the sensors to the actors on down to the actual staging of scenes--is covered.

A Hero’s Journey--Interactive Version is a variation on the above featurette, with this version allowing the viewer to branch out from the main featurette into a series of ten two-minute mini-featurettes, each of which expands on the performance capture technique. (For those who don’t want to employ the branching option, you can also pick and choose your way through the mini-featurettes or watch them in one lump.) 

The Origins of Beowulf (5 minutes) finds Gaiman and Avery discussing the original poem, the challenges in adapting it, and the changes they made for the script.

Beasts of Burden: Designing the Creatures of Beowulf (7 minutes) contains short interviews with members of the design team and also provides a look at the various pieces of artwork they created while designing Grendel, his mother, the dragon, and the other monstrous beings featured in the movie.

Creating the Ultimate Beowulf (3 minutes) briefly delves into the casting of Winstone, offering an explanation as to why the not-so-buff actor was chosen to play the title character and touching on the digital work employed to alter his appearance.

The Art of Beowulf (5 minutes) offers a look at more of the paintings, sketches, models, etc. created by the design and art teams. 

A Conversation with Robert Zemeckis (10 minutes) is actually a question-and-answer session conducted following a screening of the movie at USC. Much of the info the director imparts here is covered in the other extras.

Closing out the extras is the movie’s theatrical trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS