Beowulf (2007)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
A 6th-century Scandinavian warrior named Beowulf embarks on a mission to slay the man-like ogre, Grendel.
11 connections found
View:
11 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Beowulf to
The 3-D effects, developed by James Cameron's Lightstorm Productions for that director's own Aliens of the Deep, are jaw-droppingly immersive and realistic, but thanks to the witty, zippy script, they never detract from the story, which ends up becoming something of a semiprecursor to John Boorman's Excalibur (another English lit adaptation with Hollywood appendages).
Naturally, Beowulf falls into her trap, and imitation Excalibur (1981) heavy drama ensues.
Other than Beowulf, his most successful performance-capture film to date, Zemeckis has chosen to deploy this system in children’s films.
Sure enough, the man behind Polar Express, Beowulf, and the Jim Carrey Christmas Carol is the producer of Mars Needs Moms, a laborious affair based on Berkeley Breathed's charming picture book.
In "The Polar Express," "Monster House," "Beowulf," "A Christmas Carol" and now "Mars Needs Moms," Zemeckis — also responsible for such cutting-edge special-effects films as "Forrest Gump" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" — has pursued an apparently keen interest in "performance capture" or "motion capture" filmmaking, in which actors are photographed while covered in reflective markers, so their movements and expressions can be electronically tracked and then translated into computer-generated imagery, to create animated characters.
The results, as seen in Zemeckis’s previous mo-cap features A Christmas Carol, Beowulf and The Polar Express, can charitably be described as interesting, but they’re considerably short of enchanting.
Certainly, Zemeckis products "Beowulf," "Monster House" and "A Christmas Carol" have shown that as the technology becomes more refined, the physical animation can look increasingly realistic.
As previously practiced most aggressively by Robert Zemeckis, in such films as "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and the recent flop "Mars Needs Moms," "performance capture" or "motion capture" is an expensive and technically sophisticated process in which the movements and facial expressions of actors in Lycra suits covered in reflective markers are photographed and digitally translated into animation.
It's thorough and particularized without looking creepy the way Robert Zemeckis's CGI rotoscoping did ("Polar Express," "Beowulf").
Given Tintin’s origins in comic books, the CGI-animation approach is arguably justified, unlike several of Zemeckis’s performance capture films like Beowulf (2007), which needlessly replaced human actors with similar-looking digital avatars.
Who can say, but at least the result is less disconcerting than the sight of an ultra-buff living painting with Ray Winstone 's face in that " Beowulf " thing.
In the past, this technique, as demonstrated in movies like Robert Zemeckis ’s “The Polar Express” and “ Beowulf ,” came across as machine-tooled – soulless.
Part of its success comes from the always-grand vision of Spielberg, who proves that performance-capture animation -- a la "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf" (as opposed to traditional computer-generated animation, a la "Toy Story") -- has come a long way.
With a distinct aesthetic, The Northman succeeds where other epic stories like 2007s Beowulf and 2006s 300 fail.
Advertisement
When it is not, well… you get Beowulf (2007), which rendered the most famous work of Old English literature as a series of video-game boss battles.
But there’s also, probably more definitively, Robert Zemeckis’s “Beowulf,’’ with its grim landscapes, startling gore, and dead-eyed characters.
As a commercial art form, stop-motion animation has been relegated to the pre-digital past, but don’t tell that to Henry Selick ("James and the Giant Peach," "The Nightmare Before Christmas"), the writer/director of "Coraline," a stop-motion animated film shot in stereoscopic 3D based on Neil Gaiman’s ("Beowulf," "Anansi Boys," "American Gods," "Stardust," "Neverwhere," "Good Omens," "Sandman") Hugo- and Nebula-winning dark fantasy novel.
Adapted by Selick from Neil Gaiman's novella (the same Neil Gaiman who co-scripted "Beowulf," incidentally), "Coraline" is a contemporary fairy tale about a bored, blue-haired 11-year-old kicking around a big old house in rainy, empty Oregon.
Last year's Beowulf employed 3-D with a certain fairy-tale savvy, but Journey is just the new version of a 1950s comin'-at-ya roller coaster, with a tape measure, trilobite antennae, and giant snapping piranha thrust at the audience.
Last fall’s 3-D “Beowulf” was a rousing if campy spectacle, and more 3-D films are coming.
More recently, I saw Robert Zemeckis' computer-animated "Beowulf" at the Paradiso, also in the digital 3D process.
And it's not out to 3-D you to death, the way Robert Zemeckis ' "Beowulf" (a far more ambitious project) couldn't stop aiming all that stuff directly at your head every second of every scene.
Journey to the Center of the Earth, along with other recent movies such as Beowulf, is meant to sell us on this notion.
Seeking to build upon Beowulf's breakthrough, Journey to the Center of the Earth takes the 3-D ball and runs with it.
Advertisement
With Rango, Gore Verbinski becomes the latest filmmaker to make the leap from live action to animation – which places him in the company of well-known directors like Robert Zemeckis (Beowulf) and Zack Snyder (Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole).
As with Robert Zemeckis 's recent Beowulf , Refn is inexplicably fixated on the conflict between virtuous pagans and hypocritical, self-respect-destroying Christians during the Viking era; specifically, mute warrior One-Eye ( Mads Mikkelsen ) versus all kinds of Christian scum.