Queen Wealhtheow (Robin Wright Penn) in Paramount Pictures' Beowulf

Not to mean I care a lick about the mini controversy surrounding whether or not the film is animated. It is, don’t let there even be a question on that front. No, my problems begin and end with the type of animation and nothing else. While the tools Zemeckis has at his fingertips have certainly improved since The Polar Express, that doesn’t mean they’ve still been perfected. There is a herky-jerky weirdness to all of this that’s rather uncomforting, motion capture (the technique of filming real actors and then animating over the top of them) still not as advanced as the filmmakers would like to have you believe.

Granted, they have improved. There is far more fluidity to the motions of the people inhabiting this tale then was even remotely evident in the director’s prior Christmas fantasy, and some of what goes on here is magnificently mind-blowing. But there is still a deadness to each character’s eyes that is oddly distancing and more than a tad uncomfortable, and as impressed as I was with the visual majesty of it all I never once felt enough of a connection to any of the action to make the film resonate on a deeper level.

Every central figure; the prideful hero Beowulf (Ray Winstone), his mournful tortured enemy Grendel (Crispin Glover), the troubled king Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) and his sadly disappointed wife Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn), the hero’s trusted second Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson); has this problem. As good as each actor is (and, by and large, save for a woefully silly John Malkovich they are excellent) I kept asking myself why go through the bother of animating all of them. I would have cared more had they been flesh and blood, and for all its low budget roots the Canadian production Beowulf and Grendel left more of a visceral impression upon me than this one even remotely did.

And yet, I cannot get Zemeckis’ picture out of my mind. The early scenes of the demon Grendel’s first attacks are astonishing, while a final sequence aboard a giant fire-breathing dragon is absolutely breathtaking. Beowulf is a style over anything remotely substantive, and while this is usually a thing I preach ample amounts of disdain for I find I can’t rustle up enough anger to make this fury heard. More, unlike Zack Snyder’s hit opus from earlier this year this one has more on its mind then phantasmagoric rivers of blood and guts, the moral dilemma at the center of all of this far more interesting and intriguing then anything to be found in 300.

As for my earlier caterwauling and complaints, there is one exception to and it is a sinisterly beguiling whopper. I don’t know what it is about Angelina Jolie but she is absolutely miraculous as Grendel’s serpentine witch of a mother. More, unlike every other person in the film her eyes are alive and electric, sinister pools of greed, malice and desire dripping from each one of them. She is everything the rest of the film is not, a human figure (well – sort of) as invigorating and enthralling as the technological wizardry surrounding it.

When she’s around, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. When she wasn’t, I couldn’t wait until she returned. Maybe this is due to the fact Jolie always seemed more like a computer creation then a real flesh-and-blood actor to begin with, maybe it is because she is the only one who found away to remember to connect with the character on a visceral level and not let the animator’s do the job for her. No matter what the reason she is without a doubt on of the year’s most astonishing villains, and more than anything else in the picture her performance is the one thing guaranteed to bring me back to the theater for a second showing. 

But no matter what you may think of any of this, if people are going to head out to see Beowulf I cannot stress enough how they must find a screen showing it in 3D. Quite simply, there is no other way to watch the film, none whatsoever, and I have this sinking feeling I would not have been so amenable to the elements I did not care for had I not viewed it in this particular medium. Be that as it may, at least on that front Zemeckis has crafted a monumentally heroic achievement worthy of hymns of lasting praise; I just wish the rest of it lived up to the same standards. 

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Beowulf Theatrical Trailer