How do you translate one of the first works in English-an epic poem, no less-into a major Hollywood film? Doing it in CGI and 3D is apparently the answer. Opening this weekend is Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf, Hollywood's version of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem, starring Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and Ray Winstone.
The film begins much like the Old English epic, in a sixth century Danish mead-hall full of drunken, raucous merriment led by the great King Hrothgar (Hopkins). All this excitement, however, rouses a neighboring monster, Grendel. After the Danes are ravaged by his first attack, the Swedish hero Beowulf (Winstone) arrives on the scene, preceded by his gargantuan reputation, and vows to slay the beast.
It is at this point that the film begins to take great license with the narrative. The writers have taken the original story and turned it on its ear in typical blockbuster fashion. Without revealing too much about the movie, all the requisite Hollywood intrigues, shocking twists and gratuitous nudity are present. The characters are reduced to clichés as well: the wise and virtuous queen whom Beowulf falls in love with, the evil seductress (Jolie), the deformed but pitiable monster and the pathetic king whom the titular hero must succeed.
The newest addition to Hollywood and possibly the one that will seduce the movie-making apparatus with the remorseless insistence of Grendel's mother is CGI technology. Computer generated imagery is used here to create a film in which all the characters look like they have been painted into a strange and fantastic world yet pop out at you in 3D. If you thought 3D involved paper-glasses with one red eye and one green one, think again. Paramount now hands out plastic 3D glasses that resemble sunglasses, and the IMAX theatre places you smack dab in the middle of all the action. It is impossible to not be entertained when arrows fly right at your eye, or a rat scurries towards you. Although, there is a certain glassiness in the actors' eyes, CGI has permitted the filmmakers to mould their characters in ways that allowed Jolie to shed the excess pounds of her three month pregnancy and appear on screen as characteristically smoking hot.
Although impressive, and probably a landmark for film-making, CGI and 3D are not enough to save the actual movie. Anthony Hopkins, who is known for his restrained yet powerful performances, gives what can only be called a very amateur portrayal of King Hrothgar. While this may be due to the challenges of shooting in live action and then being tinkered with, this stilted quality extends to all the others as well. Winstone's exaggerated posturing as Beowulf is the only performance that seems feasibly congruent with the story. Not much is required from Jolie's demon except to look quite naked and wicked which she does well, all while in a pair of devilish stilettos.
"What we need is a hero," says King Hrothgar in the opening scenes of Beowulf. What this movie actually needed was a stronger interpretation of the original epic, better acting and a little less pandering to all of Hollywood's stereotypes. However powerful, CGI is not hero enough.
Beowulf is in theatres now. Check www.cinema-montreal.com for showtimes. Or go to the library and read the poem, you illiterates.
2008 Woodie Awards
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