Beowulf is fighting demons and beasts as we see him depicted in the movie. He grapples with love, lust and death. Imagine flying through the air on a brisk summer day. Now picture the opposite. You are in what is now 11th century Sweden and Denmark besieged with the task of defending your brothers across the North Sea to combat a demon and her son who is terrorizing the local villages. An adventure of a lifetime!
Beowulf (Ray Winstone) is a Geatish warrior that answers the call for help from the Danish King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) to slay a monster that is terrorizing them. Upon arriving, Beowulf falls in love with Hrothgar’s wife, Queen Wealtheow (Robin Wright Penn). To lure Grendel back to the village, Beowulf and his men celebrate in the Mead hall. Eventually Grendel shows up and starts to beat up everyone. Out of the shadows, Beowulf attacks Grendel. Naked, and weaponless! Obviously he is confident in his ability to slay this petty monster. Eventually Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie), the fierce demon who appears as a beautiful woman with really odd feet! Talk about functional, yet stylish! Beowulf goes to meet her and attempt to fight, but she knows his weakness. She did the same thing to King Hrothgar, and that is how Grendel was created. Once Beowulf gets back to the village he reports that Grendel’s mother is dead and everyone celebrates. During the celebration Hrothgar announces that when he passes, Beowulf will become king of the land. Much to the dismay of Unferth (John Malkovich), Hrothgar’s advisor and faux-enemy of Beowulf. After an unkown amount of time passes, we see Beowulf with his wife, Queen Wealtheow! Unfortunately he experiences the same problems that Hrothgar did when he was married to her. One day, Unferth’s slave, Cain comes with a dragon horn. Symbolizing the end of peace between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother. I’ll let you see what happens next!
The film uses motion capture technology to create 3D renders of the actors in the film. Zemeckis used this because he felt that it gave him more control over the story and enabled him to put the characters in positions and places that wouldn’t be possible for an actor. I think it added the ability to manipulate each scene to create a more in depth and action packed. However it does lack the realism that using real filming would, which made it harder to connect to the characters and their emotions. For example, during the first fight in the mead hall, everyone’s faces look almost stoic and had little emotion. Even during the conversations, the characters show little emotion and reaction to what other characters say. The special effects, aside from the characters, the fighting scenes were jam packed with action. From fire to swords penetrating skin, you get an up close and personal view of it all. The soundtrack was well made, and added that extra facet to the violent action scenes, and the deep emotional tones to the dramatic scenes. This really struck me as impressive how the animations and sounds were closely connected.
The movie does skip some pretty important details. In the poem, Beowulf is portrayed as flawed. The biggest example of this is when Beowulf dies a very arrogant death. He has aged considerably and obviously doesn’t have the strength to kill off the monster and survive. A glaring issue is when Beowulf becomes the king of Denmark instead of his homeland with the Geats. Although the story wouldn’t have been as coherent so I understand why Zemeckis chose to change that.
Overall I enjoyed the movie and how it portrayed the poem. Even if Zemeckis did omit some pretty important details. I’d go check it out if you enjoyed the book and want to see everything to clear up anything you missed in the poem. The movie received a 6.3/10 on IMDB and 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you like a good action scene and a relation to history in middle aged europe, then you are bound to like this cohesive, well designed movie.
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