So Sunday night (after Kimi got her hair cut and hung out in the city that day), I saw the late showing of Beowulf in 3D.
This movie is a gimmick wrapped inside a gimmick wrapped inside an enigma. But it does succeed in being entertaining.
First of all, it’s computer animated. And the human expressions are, quite frankly, not very good. Robin Wright Penn’s character, Wealthow, is particularly wooden. While brief scenes are photo realistic enough to trick the eye, I was never able to suspend disbelief for long because of the uncanny valley effect. These animated characters aren’t cartoonish enough to be lovable or sympathetic, and they aren’t human enough to pass as realistic. The effect is ultimately as if you’re watching a movie starring stop-motion mannequins.
The second gimmick is the three-dimensional effect. I don’t wear glasses normally, so it’s distracting to have to wear the 3-D glasses. And every opportunity that exists for a spear to be thrust in your face or an axe to be hurled toward you is taken. It’s not immersive; it’s distracting.
The enigma is the cold story of a relationship built on a foundation of lies. It’s a bit more resonant than the actual Beowulf epic; in fact, this movie shares little with the original old English story other than its setting, character names, and the vague idea that a hero named Beowulf at one point fights a monster named Grendel. The story is a bit off-putting, preventing you from really forming any kind of attachment to the wooden mannequins parading around in front of you, waving swords, disrobing, and leaping from parapet to crag.
Brief scenes that work are amazing, and these are mostly the action sequences. Certain ones near the end involving an event and creature quite different from what happens in the Beowulf epic I remember from Freshman English are stirring and make this a movie worth checking out, as long as you’re forewarned ahead of time of the gimmicks.
![[Ultra Kawaii logo]](http://s3assets.nextnewnetworks.com/4842.png)
Subscribe (via Feedburner)
