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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Beowulf (2007)
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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester
Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 11-15-2007 08:49 AM
The animation is loads better than Polar Express, but animation of this type will always have loads more room for improvement. Characters were sometimes too stiff, often too expressionless, but a few moments here and there looked "right".
IMAX 3D version gets thumbs up! Some of the larger-scale action sequences looked miniature, like they separated the eyes slightly beyond "normal" to exaggerate the 3D effect, but the depth of rendered detail was impressively crisp. (For the record, the IMAX 3D version was 36×2 reels. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) )
That was an "idealized" Angelina body. I doubt she's got those perfect hips. The boobs were too big, at least for MY "ideal". But they got her freaky, huge, weird-textured lips just right! Damn, the one thing I would have changed.
There are no "dirty bits" nudity, per se, but you definitely get some lessons in human anatomy. And a bit of non-human anatomy as well, now that I mention it. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Good music! It was definitely a Silvestri score. With songs co-written by Glen Ballard ... hey, at least Josh Grobin wasn't singing a put-me-out-of-my-misery-please cheeseball song in the credits!
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-18-2007 03:58 AM
Location: Carmike 8, Lawton, OK
Auditorium: #1
Format: Real D/2K Scope/LPCM 5.1
Rating: 3 stars out of 4
Many high school students have to study the original epic poem of Beowulf, which dates back well over 1000 years, and no one really knows who wrote it. Those students are best warned not to try to use this Hollywood feature as a sort of "Cliff Notes" substitute. The movie is different from the original poem in a number of ways. Aside from the departures of "creative license" taken by Zemeckis and writers Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary, I found the movie to be pretty entertaining throughout. I'd like to see it again.
While the animation quality is a step up from The Polar Express, the results are still a little strange and even creepy looking at times. Realistic human figures are difficult enough to animate (horses are really difficult too), but getting animation right with CGI human faces is difficult to an extreme. There's just too many nuances going in a real human face to communicate life and emotion. There's so much happening that the CGI likenesses of Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins are occaisionally lost. Anyone who has ever tried drawing a portrait of someone knows it takes a delicate balance to capture and maintain the likeness of someone. When confronted by all that technical/artistic difficulty, I have to ask this question: what is the point of doing that at all? Why not just shoot live action actors?
It's easier, not to mention more interesting, to animate CGI characters who are not completely realistic. Whether they're cartoony, caricatures or strange abstractions, such non-realistic CGI characters won't be inviting such a critical eye as to what's wrong or right about them. Without the distraction over what's real enough or not the audience can concentrate more on enjoying the story. I guess that's one reason why the end credits of Ratatouille bragged "100% Genuine Animation! No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film."
The Real D version of 3D was good. I think the best 3D I've seen was NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience. One advantage IMAX has is a huge screen whose borders don't interfere with objects trying to poke close to your face. But at least Beowulf consistently looked 3D throughout, with the characters and objects clearly defined in 3D space.
I liked Alan Silvestri's score and the songs from Glen Ballard. Sure, the main orchestral theme with its horns and chanting chorus is an obvious mix of classic monster movie kitsch with Viking themes. But it still sounds pretty catchy.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-18-2007 11:24 AM
quote: Matt Barth
I wasn't impressed, had I gone to the 2-D version I would have been down-right bored. I swear Beowulf was played by Sean Bean
Sean Bean is 48 years old. Although heavier, Ray Winstone is only 2 years older. I doubt Sean Bean has or ever had a physique like the CGI Beowulf character. But that issue, as well as the issue of Angelina Jolie's true life figure, is totally irrelevant. Grendal's Mother and Beowulf are meant to be idealized looking.
quote: Matt Barth
Overall, I can get those graphics on a PS3 or XBox360 game and enjoy myself a bit more.
That's wrong. While the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3 are both impressive for what they can do, such as getting decent gaming graphics scaled to HD-quality levels, they do NOT come anywhere close to equalling finished quality motion picture CGI graphics. Any gamer out there who believes otherwise doesn't know what he is talking about or is just lying through his teeth.
It still takes entire farms of computers crunching numbers for weeks on end to render a two hour, all-CGI movie. Some funky looking little toy box with 3 PowerPC CPUs and one GPU isn't going to equal the work of an entire rendering farm, much less deliver those results in real time. Look at the differences closely. A model in a game still has a very low triangle count. There's nowhere near as many shaders at work. Let's also not leave out the fact a finished 3D movie render is often put through additional steps, such as a pass through a compositing program like Fusion or have frames individually touched up in Photoshop.
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