Comic Con Report 2007: Beowulf 20 Mins Presentation!

By George 'El Guapo' Roush on July 26, 2007

Last night the Latinoreview staff and other members of the press were invited to watch a presentation of Paramount Pictures’ upcoming Beowulf movie. This is a script (read our review HERE) that has been floating around for quite a while and with today’s technology in filmmaking is being turned into a movie for the 1 millionth time.

Using the latest in motion capture and 3-d technology (Real 3D. You experienced it earlier this year if you caught the Disney flick Meet The Robinsons in 3-D) Beowulf uses the performances from real actors, then animates over them. It’s the same process used in the film Polar Express with Tom Hanks. Before watching the footage writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery were introduced and we then watched the trailer. But I’m not going to get into the trailer. One, because I can’t remember what they showed, and two, nobody cares about my description of a trailer even if I did remember it. Plus Kellvin already posted the trailer HERE!

What I will take about is the 20 minute 2nd reel they did show us. Between this reel and the trailer and teaser we were shown, this was the only footage that has been completed so far for the film and we were lucky enough to be the first audience to witness it.

The scene started with Beowulf (Ray Winstone) having defeated Grendel (Crispin Glover) and being hailed by the villagers for his victory. I don’t know if he was being hailed for having defeated the creature or because the villagers liked seeing him butt ass naked. Who knows how randy those fuckers got back in the day. Beowulf is then told that Grendel’s mother (Played by Angelia Jolie) is going to come after them all for revenge. Beowulf, in all of his animated pissed off-edness heads off to kill the last member of this foul family tree.

While I’m not a huge fan of the Beowulf tale, this version of it by Robert Zemeckis looks to be the most creative yet. The footage I did see looked absolutely gorgeous. The fire seemed like it was going to jump right out at you. The background scenes are truly breathtaking. I LOVE this advanced leap in 3-D technology. It’s a movie technique that has been stagnant for far too long and it’s great that studios are embracing what a fun viewing experience it is for their films. But while the backgrounds and elements are a visual fireworks display for your eyes, I still don’t think they gotten down the most important parts of it which is how the humans look and move. The expression in their eyes still looks hollow and vacant. They all look like someone who got really stoned and is staring at the wall.

I’m not exactly sure why a studio would want to motion capture their actors. I thought it looked bad in Polar Express and it doesn’t appear to have advanced all that much since then. Sometimes the actors look fantastic and other times they look like they should be in a Shrek film. Remember the Final Fantasy movie and video games? This is along those lines. It’s like an advanced peek into how your video games will look in 5 years. It’s just a lot of money to spend on computer animation when really you could just use the live actors and then animate everything around them. It does have its advantages though, since they gave Ray a six pack and Angelina a rock hard body that would make even the biggest supermodels jealous.

The film will be released in Imax 3-D, Real 3D and Dolby 3-D and is slated for a PG-13 rating. Why not an R rating? The writers decided to change the color of the blood and take out most of the swearing. I’m not thrilled about it, but it does make sense since you don’t want to shut out your younger audience. Though I’m not the biggest fan of motion capture, I do have to say that the film did look awesome (The cave scene was fucking amazing to see). This is not a movie you should wait for to come out on DVD. This is a film that you’re going to have to go to the theater and experience for yourself. It truly is a fascinating work of art and anyone who calls themselves a fan of cinema would be making a huge mistake in not seeing it on the big screen.

You should see my body in 3-D!! Request a viewing by e-mailing george@latinoreview.com

Source:Latino Review

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