Beowulf
Wow- a big budget Beowulf film. Could be cool. With Ray Winstone? Awesome! One of my favorites! He’s the best in Sexy Beast and the The Proposition...
But then I hear it’s animated. OK cool- Could be some great visual potential here. Think of the stylistic possibilities fueled by research into the Beowulf poem and art of that time. I pictured something along the lines of the above image (by Eric Fraser), or the one below (by Keeping)....
Then I heard that the new Beowulf film was going to be completely CG animated and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Now I’ve stopped thinking Beowulf might be anything with originality or stylistic flair, because I saw the trailer to Zemeckis’ Polar Express.....
Seeing the lifeless video-game-style CG characters “act” and look “oh so real” to the average person was enough to make me vomit.
Now take that and inject Beowulf. Why are they doing the film this way,,,,?
Because they can. Ooooh. Aaaahh. Anything is possible in the hands of Hollywood’s cinematic magicians. They can even make the CG characters resemble wax-figure versions of real people! Amazing!
Is that Angelina Jolie in the Beowulf trailer? It’s her voice, but the character is CGI. Yes this is a frame from the animation. Wow- So real! Why? Because. Just because. Why not just shoot live-action?
Because they can do this......
Oooohh. Aaahhhh.
Paint Robin Wright green and you have the princess from Shrek.
Well at least Ray Winstone is the main character, right? Well kind-of. All characters look like imitations of the voice actors (Wright, Jolie, Hopkins, Malkovich). All except Ray Winstone. He’s been transformed into a really buff and generic shirtless square-jawed action hero....
Why?
Because they can........
There are a few movies worth a damn out there right now. Here my recommendations........
Sunshine (Danny Boyle gives us some great outer-space imagery coupled with very human moments of fear, selfishness, and selflessness)
Harry Potter #5 (better than the book, I’m told. nicely directed, with a great sense of environment)
Bourne Ultimatum (not much story here, but some of the best filmed and edited action sequences ever)
Bratz (just kidding)
Ratatouille (Brad Bird does it again. Not as solid as Iron Giant or the Incredibles, but Bird’s latest effort has great designs, wonderful acting, great camera movement, and some of the best CG animation ever produced.)
more soon..............
Edwards Illustration
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
