[Film] Beowulf

[karohemd]

was good, a classic story well told, I think. I haven't actually read the poem (I had bought a new translation a few years ago but it disappeared) so I can't comment on how many liberties were taken with the plot etc. but I've read at various places that it's a very good adaptation of the material.

It took me quite a while to suspend my disbelief, though. CGI has come a long way but even with motion capture, humans and animals still move unnaturally. There is a certain quality to the movements (too fluid and exact, in a way) that makes it look a bit off. I don't have a problem with this in films like Shrek etc. because it's cartoon characters who you expect to move oddly but this film is otherwise pretty photorealistic so these things distract at first.
Characters aside, the rest of the CGI is very lush indeed.

Various people commented that it was very brutal for a 12A but I didn't think it was any more brutal than the LotR films (which doesn't mean that I think 12A was a bit low for the level of violence in LotR). The (implied) nudity got through, too, amazingly but I guess that was due to the lack of nipples and pubic hair. On that note, I'd like to know how many liberties they took with Angelina Jolie's body because it's obvious they did with Ray Winstone's. ;o)

So yeah, go and watch it. It's a good yarn and just not too long (just under two hours).

Comments

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

I'm off to see it in 3D tonight, can't wait!! :D

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

How does the 3D work? With glasses?

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Yes, with glasses. :)

Real-D films are projected at 144fps with alternating clockwise and anti-clockwise polarised images (for left and right). The frame rate is so fast that the brain can't distinguish the separation between the left and right images and so interprets them as a single 3D stereoscopic image at 72fps instead. Using circular rather than linear polarisation means it will work no matter what angle your head is at.

Long gone are the days of red and green coloured filters! *grin*

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

No point in me going, then, as you still need stereo vision which I lack. I remember going to one of those funfair attractions (with polarising glasses, not red/green) and I still got fuzzy double pictures. The new technology might be better in reproducing this but I'd rather not spent a lot of money on a ticket and then not being able to enjoy it.

[sherbetsaucers.livejournal.com]

"It took me quite a while to suspend my disbelief, though."

Ahhh hyper reality, the bane of CGI experts and movie goes the world over.

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

Various people commented that it was very brutal for a 12A but I didn't think it was any more brutal than the LotR films

You've just made me think of something I was pondering yesterday. Apocalypto has hearts being ripped out of chests and so does Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom. Yet one is an R and one is PG.(thought the former film does have a lot more violence i will concede)

It makes me laugh.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I can never tell where they draw the line, either.
I think it's some abritrary number of occurences.

[jholloway.livejournal.com]

Temple of Doom actually had a rating created for it in the US, PG-13, which is not-quite R.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

I'm quite interested in seeing this, but I'm like you - I can't really see the point in doing CGI humans when flesh and blood actors are available, and look better!

By all means realise fantastic creatures through CGI, but to go to the bother of making a photorealistic CG version of Anthony Hopkins when the guy is standing right there seems like a colossal waste of time and effort to me.

** Edited for typing blunders!

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

oh moodie i forgot to say- i need to draw the sketch for you to colour! It wasn't actually the one I sent with the dvd, that was just a standard sketch i gave everyone!

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

Aha! Oh well, I've made a start on that anyway so I might as well finish it as a practice run, but I'll happily have a go at something you actually want me to colour! LOL

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods* My thoughts exactly.

Actually, I can think of a technical reason. As the characters are CG as well, it's easier to integrate them into the CG environment and you don't get that green screen effect of bits and pieces not quite fitting in.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

I suppose so, but I still prefer to see live action combined with CG. I think it helps to sell the fantastic elements if there's something real to look at on screen as well.

The Lord of the Rings films are a good example I think. OK, the integration of live action and CG may have been less than seemless at times, but I still think it's far more effective to be able to see real actors in there amidst all the CG beasties.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, just musing on the reasons.

[von-geisterhand.livejournal.com]

I had a bit of an internal struggle yesterday as I was trying to decide whether or not I should make an exception for this film and watch it in its dubbed version and 3D IMAX. (According to Empire and Mark Kermode, one should). (Why they cannot show the film in English and 3D IMAX is beyond me.)
(Well, it's not really. I get it, but still...)
By the time my internal struggle was over and I had decided that this might well be worth it, it was too late.
Another week....

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

You can see it in English and 3D at Real-D enabled cinemas (my local cineworld is such a place, where I am going tonight). A list of Real-D cinemas can be found on their site here:

http://www.reald.com/

There's a "find a theatre" link at the bottom.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Hm, three cinemas in Germany.
Nothing in a reasonable distance from Cambridge, either. Bah.

Let's commute to Nuremberg!

[von-geisterhand.livejournal.com]

Or Berlin, for that matter. :-/

This is such BS! They have the IMAX and the "international" cinema in the same building, why the fuck can they not connect the two and do a proper screening?

Re: Let's commute to Nuremberg!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods*
Nuremberg is lovely, anyway, if there were a job opportunity, I'd be back in an instant.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

CGI annoys me a lot. Body parts have fat that is wobbly, be they breasts, arms, legs or torsoes. Until CGI makes this respond to gravity properly, CGI will look stupid.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention that, they tried to make breasts wobble (especially in a particular scene) but it looked very inconvincing indeed. Grendel's mother's are solid gold, though, so no wobbling there. ;o)

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

So. You haven't talked to jholloway about this yet have you?

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure he'll have plenty of things to moan about but as I said in a comment on mr_malk, if it's a feature film, I don't care (much) about historical inaccuracies.

[jholloway.livejournal.com]

I do.

Not "historical inaccuracies" of course, as much as "what's the fucking point?" But I haven't seen the damn thing yet, only read the SUPER SHOCKING PLOT TWIST. I will rant on this shit at some point.

[eryx-uk.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed it. I thought the CGI for the people was pretty good, though I agree that they do move oddly.

[nikkita422.livejournal.com]

yes. I did enjoy it very much in 3D. It's a shame you can't do 3D, Ozzy. It was a good experience. The ones I can't wait for Sweeney Todd and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The latter was a favourite of mine growing up. The remake has Brendan Frasier AND is available in 3D. SO VERY EXCITED!

[bloomeenee.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know how many liberties they took with Angelina Jolie's body because it's obvious they did with Ray Winstone's.
According to empire, Ray winstone was voice only, and they used two other people for the young and old beowulf (can't remember who though)

I'm with you on the CGI thing though... it took about half the film before i stopped noticing and feeling like I was watching a computer game. For comparison, it normally takes about five minutes before i stop being conscious of reading subtitles.

ratings are weird, and i think getting increasingly 'lenient' (not really the word I want as its too judgemental, but best i can do). Try comparing recent pg/12 films to ford coppola's Dracula, which is an 18. If they cut the dracula/Lucy graveyard scene, they could probably stick a PG on that now.

The Beowulf being nude scene was just too too austin powers though... I'm sure I wasn't meant to be giggling

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods*
The orginal Hammer Dracula originally just got past the censors as an X (or whatever it was at the time), the current re-release is a 12.

Hahaha, you're not the first to mention Austin Powers in that scene. ;o)

[bloomeenee.livejournal.com]

I know, not original, but oh so true:D there were many many points where i was reduced to fits of giggles, and I think for most of them i probably wasn't meant to be. Can't remember what they were now though.

I never really noticed the censorship/rating thing until recently, but now that I've noticed it once, i'm really aware of it.