Beowulf' is one of the most prominent and legendary English poems about the epic saga of a powerful and admired hero and tells us the journey of his life. It is written in Anglo-Saxon or old English. Beowulf, the protagonist of the poem, has fought and won several battles and created history and later become King of the Geatland (the southern part of Sweden on a modern map).
The movie "Beowulf" is strongly based on this epic poem. Famous English Author Neil Gaiman and Canadian Born Oscar-winning screenwriter and film producer Roger Avery wrote the movie script based on this poem in 1997. Due to insufficient funds and some other related problems, it could not be transformed to movie format at that time. Later, at the end of 2005, the legendary Director and producer Robert Zemeckis, who is widely notable for using special effects in movies, showed an interest in the "Beowulf" transcript and planned to direct this movie.
Director Robert Zemerckis is the pioneer of motion-capture technology in modern age movies. Motion capture or MOCAP is an extreme animation technology that translates the recorded movements of real actor/actresses to digital format and characterizes them. It was first invented in Scotland, and later it became a popular concept in military force, entertainment, sports and also in medical related fields.
Robert Zemerckis rose to fame in the 1980s for his popular movie series named "Back to the Future" - a comedic science fiction movie trilogy written and directed by Robert Zemerckis. It was widely praised and positively received by the movie critics and viewers for its unique storyline and brilliant on-screen special effects. Robert Zemerckis also won an Oscar for directing the famous movie Forest Gump.
He directed the first 3D movie with Motion Capture Technology, named "The Polar Express", in 2004. It was the first movie that used motion capture technology. It was an instant hit and was well received by the viewers. Being inspired from this movie's success, later he decided upon and directed "Beowulf".
The main characters are Ray Winstone, who plays the character of Beowulf (the protagonist and legendary hero of the movie), Angelina Jolie plays the character of Grendel's Mother (an evil, vindictive, cunning and hideous lady), Anthony Hopkins plays the character of King Hrothgar(the old, lazy and drunk King of Geatland, once famous for his power and nobility), John Malkovich plays the character of Unferth (the honest and obedient advisor of King Hother) and Brendan Gleeson plays the character of Wiglaf (one of the best friends and lieutenant of Beowulf ).
The story develops in Denmark, where King Horthgar was celebrating and enjoying the opening of new Mead Hall (a large building with a single room, which is exclusively used for festivals and celebrations) named Heorot.
There was dancing, singing and lots of drinking going on at the King's party. This loud and noisy celebration irritated the Grendel so much that he decided to attack the mead hall. He attacked and killed lots of people but did not kill the King.
The next morning, the miserable and remorseful King decided to close down the mead hall and also declared that he would give half his kingdom to the person, who can kill the monster, Grendel. Beowulf is a powerful and fearless fighter came in to Hrothgar's kingdom with his battalion by ship. He somehow persuaded the king to reopen the mead hall and also convinced him that he will be able to fight and kill the Grendel.
So the story tells us how the mighty Beowulf fights against the evil Grendel. It also tells us how Beowulf ends up being the King of the Horhgar's Kingdom. It also depicts nicely how he makes the same mistakes as Horthgar and suffers from its aftermath. This movie has a gripping storyline and some extraordinary and surprising twists in the storyline. The graphical representation and visual effects are simply mind-blowing and highly enjoyable.
To be honest with you, I absolutely loved this movie. I am just thrilled and amazed at the wonders modern technology can do - it is just simply beyond my imagination. The remarkably great technology motion capture has been used in this movie with a touch of extra elegance and exquisiteness. Director Robert Zemerckis appointed over 450 graphics designers to make this movie more realistic and acceptable to the audience. To date, it is the largest team ever assembled for a movie animation and visual effects presentation.
I completely loved the character of King Hrothgar. He is very kind and noble person and he really feels for his fellow country-men. He also realized that, just because of his early life's mistake his men were suffering now. He is really anguished, sorrowful for his shameful act and tries to forget it by drinking all the time. Anthony Hopkins did a grand job in the role of King Hrothgar. The flawless and eloquent delivery of dialogues with a touch of constant agony and pain and a distressed look in his face, all these added an extra flavour in his character as King Hrothgar.
Ray Winstone the famous English actor, widely praised and well-known for his "Tough Guy" roles in movies plays the central character of Beowulf. He is a brilliant actor and did some super-hit movies. But he is almost 52 years old now. Just because of extreme 3D animation and extensive visual effects he looks like 22 in the movie with an extra muscular figure. It is really weird and peculiar to be honest. Though his facial expression and body movements are really impressive and deserves sincere appreciation, still his voice for the character of Beowulf is kind of freaky. In certain places it was difficult for me to understand what actually he was trying to say. His high-pitched voice and war-voices are really odd and not natural. But that is my personal opinion.
Angelina Jolie played the character of Grendel's mother. She is a attractive, seductive, beautiful and devilish woman, who desires to have physical relations with stronger and powerful men in order to have a heir. Angelina Jolie did an outstanding job in this role. Her sweet and seductive voice and immaculate facial expression is simply priceless.
This movie received mostly mixed to positive responses from the viewers and also from film critics. It was ranked #1 in the USA box office and also in Canada. It was also received positively in UK box office. Currently it has a 6.6/10 rating in IMDB and voted by almost 50 thousand viewers. On another film critic website named Rotten Tomatoes, it received 70% rating, corresponding to a 6.5/10 based on 174 reviews.
Though this movie has not won any significant awards, it has been nominated 12 awards in total, mostly for the exceptional visual effects.
Things that really pleased me are, outstanding and almost realistic 3D animation and visual effects, the brilliant characterization of King Hrothgar and Grendel's mother, superb fighting sequences with remarkable visual effects, the presentation of the dragon in a most unique and realistic style, good sound tracks and "A Heroes Journey: Making of Beowulf" a 30 min video extra shows and explains how this epic movie was made and also about the uses of extensive 3D effects and animation.
Though I loved this movie, still there are some weaknesses such as, extreme visual effect animation and software-techniques applied on Ray Winstone's character as Beowulf, making it kind of unrealistic and unbelievable, freaky voice for Beowulf (specially high pitched dialogues). It is kind of long at almost two hours - especially the 2nd half is really long. Moreover, some action sequences are very violent and not suitable for younger generation.
The soundtrack for this movie is composed and edited by the famous composer Alan Silvastri. The album was released in 20th November, 2007 under Warner Bros records. There are some really nice tracks such as the A Hero Comes Home, which is simply amazing, another one is As Gently as She Goes.
I rented the theatrical DVD version; it is subtitled in three languages I guess, English French and Spanish. I am not so sure because I only selected the English subtitle option, because I was having difficulties to understand what Beowulf was saying at times. It also supports a wide screen facility as well as 5:1 surround sound, which is really impressive because you have the feeling of watching it at the theatre. The sound effects and graphical representation are simply awesome.
There is one almost 30 min clip titled "A heroes Journey: The Making of Beowulf". Though I did not check it on the DVD, later I watched the video on youtube. Believe me it is simply marvellous to see how much trouble and effort they have gone through to create this legendary movie. Every little detail has been explained and how the voice over character works also been described nicely.
Despite some negative remarks and reviews, I still think it is an outstanding movie. A lot of hard work and effort has been made for this movie. It is definitely worth watching and buying the DVD for your personal collection. The spellbinding storyline, extensive visual effects and engaging fighting scenes made this movie highly enjoyable. If you have not watched it yet, please go watch it, I am very sure you will like it.
Thank you very much for reading.