The latest entry into the sword-n-sandles epic fad in recent years ends up being better than most every other entry thanks to the creative quality and production talents of director Robert Zemeckis, as well as a good script and a talented cast.

Writing: I’ve read the original poem of Beowulf back in the high school years, and can’t say I remember it all too well beyond some of the broad strokes and characters. I therefor don’t consider myself all too qualified to comment on the adaptive nature of the film. The story is a simple enough tale of pride, lust and revenge. Like many of the best, it’s also a story of gray areas and imperfect characters. For all his heroic qualities, Beowulf is a flawed character capable of great mistakes, and he knows it. Toss into the mix some of the weirder qualities of the story and creatures and you’ve got an entertaining movie. I don’t recall the poem version of the Beowulf character being the gray area character of this film, but rather a traditional heroic character (something I would find less interesting). I’m sure the academics would argue in favor of the poem for any change that Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery made for the film, but I think they did a great job.

Production: There’s little doubt that one of the more interesting aspects of the film is the motion capture 3D animation approach. This is the third film with Zemeckis’ involvement to use this technique. The Polar Express was the first, and used it to great effects. Monster House wasn’t quite the classic that The Polar Express was, but was still a fun movie (which Zemeckis produced, but did not direct). Beowulf is a more aggressive use of the technology, due primarily to story.

Cast: Ray Winstone does an excellent job as Beowulf. Despite all the praise that Gerard Butler got for the lead role in 300 (a similarly geared movie), I though his performance was cardboard and typical. Winstone, however, brings a much more varied and dynamic feel to his performance. Then again, I consider Beowulf superior to 300 in pretty much every way. Angelina Jolie may be pretty obvious casting for the seductress of the story, but that’s for good reason. The slick delivery of her dialog is something Jolie makes work quite well. Crispin Glover, who hasn’t worked with Zemeckis since his legendary performance as George McFly in the first Back To The Future, is an inspired choice for Grendel. It’s hard to recognize a human performance beneath that character, and Glover is one of the actors strange enough to make that work. Robin Wright-Penn does an excellent job as Wealthow, the dignified romantic interest. And hey, she can sing, too. Like Jolie as the seductress, Anthony Hopkins is an obvious bit of casting for the aged king. He gets to play the depraved aspects of the character with great fun. Supporting roles are filled with fantastic actors, from Brendan Gleeson to John Malkovich to Alison Lohman.

Music: Coming as a surprise to precisely nobody, the score is provided by Alan Silvestri. Having score all of Zemeckis’ previous films, it was obligatory that he score this one. Of course this is a good thing, as Silvestri and Zemeckis are one of the greatest director/composer teams out there (and have been going strong for some 25 years now). Silvestri’s score is absolutely fantastic. One of the best of the year. It plays off grand themes and aggressive orchestration very well. Having said that, I think I enjoyed some of the simple moments of the quiet scenes in the score just as much. The couple songs that Penn performs are co-written with Glen Ballard, who Silvestri worked with on The Polar Express. They’re good songs, one of which is adapted well for the end credits.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.