Beowulf (12A)

Cast: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie

Beowulf is the hero of the oldest epic poem in the English language - well, Anglo Saxon actually.   It was written, according to Seamus Heany in the introduction to his 1999 translation, some time between the middle of the seventh and the end of the tenth century.  Zemeckis and writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary have taken this tale of heroes and monsters, sexed it up a little by solving some of the unanswered questions in the original regarding the origins of the monsters, and turned it into an im pressive visual spectacle for the twenty first century using the latest developments in digital 3D and the performance capture animation technology Zemeckis used in The Polar Express.  

Like most epics, the story is fairly simple.   The realm of Scandinavian king Hrothgar (Hopkins) is being terrorised by the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover).  Out of the blue appears the hero Beowulf (Winstone), who boasts he will save the kingdom from Grendel, which he does in a spectacular hand to hand battle.   He then goes off to kill the water demon Grendel's mother (Jolie) in the underground lake that is her home, but finds himself tempted by her beauty and promises of power and riches.   In the second half of the story Beowulf, now the middle aged monarch of Hrothgar's former kingdom, finds his human fallibilities returning to haunt him in the form of another monster, a dragon this time, whom once more he must vanquish. 

Technically the film is a real trip.   If you can catch it in 3D do, as that adds a lot to the spectacle, though it is sometimes a bit distracting when a character crosses the foreground of the shot and it feels like someone in the row in front of you is moving!  It is, however, particularly effective in terms of the way the landscape is shot and has a real visual feel of myth and legend combined with comic book superhero tale.  The performance capture technology has a rather spooky effect, in that it sometimes feels as though waxworks of the actors have come to life but with very realistic and lively eyes.  Jolie is ethereally beautiful, her perfect face and body emphasised by flowing molten gold and a curling pigtail like a serpent's tail.  Winstone as the young Beowulf has been enhanced into a perfectly toned body that the actor even as a young man could only have dreamed about and is only recognisable from his eyes and his voice, whereas Hopkins as the hedonistic Hrothgar appears at times to be giving us his King Lear again combined  with more than a touch of Falstaff.  The film could be seen as somewhat misogynist, in that Jolie is the epitome of seductive evil, while Hrogthar's queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn), whom Beowulf inherits along with the kingdom, has little to do but suffer, though Alison Lohman as Beowulf's mistress makes an im press ion.  Some of the dialogue is unintentionally funny in its portentousness, and so is the scene where Beowulf strips naked in preparation for his fight with Grendel and great efforts are made in terms of placing goblets, furniture and people to ensure we don't get a glimpse of his naughty bits (12A certificate!).  It is also pretty violent in places.  The enhanced actors, however, engage our attention and as a spectacle it is very entertaining.   The climactic battle with the dragon in particular is a real show stopping number.