Beowolf
Paramount Pictures, 115mins, PG-13

Directed by
Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis has been an SFX geek since the beginning of his career and with one, possibly two exceptions, has made special effects a major part of his films. One would expect that eventually, the special effects would so overwhelm the rest of the film that nothing living would wind up on the screen. Well, that happened with Zemeckis' previous film “The Polar Express” and he does it again with this one. This is a cartoon. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

First off, they've finally figured it out. What you've got to have in order to make something like this work is to have a damn fine script. That's what “The Polar Express” didn't have. This time, however, they have one. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary have managed to actually figure out what to do with that hoary old chestnut, “Beowulf,” which is something filmmakers have been trying to years.

Secondly, the Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has gotten to the point where humans don't look like they've come out of a video game. David Chiang, the production designer, has constructed a world that is both believable and pleasing to the eye. That is, except for Grendel and the dragon, both of which are brilliantly ugly.

The plot is simple enough to understand. Imagine an apartment building. The upstairs tenants are having a loud party, which drives the downstairs tenant mad, and he comes up and shoots them all. 

Then remaining upstairs tenant hires a hitman, who off the downstairs tenant and the latter's mother hires someone to…you get the idea. In this case, the upstairs apartment is the mead hall of King Hrothgar (voice of Anthony Hopkins) and his lovely wife Queen Wealhtheow (Robin Wright Penn) and the downstairs tenant is, of course, the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover). Beowulf (Ray Winstone), is the hit man. He and his brave thanes Wiglaf(Brendan Gleeson), Drehgbearn (Nick Jameson), et cetera, come all the way from Geatland (which is now Occupied Sweden) to do the deed. This is all following the original poem very closely. But Gaiman and Avary have added something new, here: Grendel's father.

Now the identity of Grendel's father is a major spoiler and I don't think it should be revealed here, but needless to say, the fact that Grendel's Mother is played by Angelina Jolie, who's face is clearly digitized on the sultriest cartoon character since Zemeckis' Jessica Rabbit changes things around so that the story is far more cohesive than the original millennium-old poem is. This brings an interesting soap-opera dimension to the comic book heroics of the original saga and makes the whole thing something entirely new.

The use of nudity is the film works. That genitals aren't actually shown via artfully done virtual camera angles, is a plus, although a tad disappointing. Ms. Jolie's doppelganger doesn't have any nipples on her breasts, so any kid can go see what can almost be called full frontal nudity without being stopped by the “R” police.

This is a comic book movie par excellence. The characters are multidimensional, the action is great, and it almost looks like live action. If this doesn't get at least a nomination for Best Animated Film, then there's no justice in the world.

…and oh, yeah, if you can, go see the IMAX® version. It's completely overwhelming, just the thing for the genre. You can't seen anything but the screen and the 3D makes it feel as if you're on the set. Wow!

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