Beowulf

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Starring: Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson

Let me get the obvious out of the way first. Yes, Angelina Jolie is naked in this film. That said, she is also animated in motion capture – sorry boys. The entire film, in fact, was shot on motion capture technology, rendering Ray Winstone as the legendary hero Beowulf as a buffed up twenty-something (a feat surely impossible by any amount of make-up and tasteful lighting), and later a slightly haggard old man, preparing to fight his final battle. Very few have not come across the legend of Beowulf in one form or another, either the ages-old English poem, or the more recent film versions. This film however is by far the most ambitious, and most successful version ever committed to celluloid.

The cast, both human and inhuman, are rendered stunningly. Zemeckis has overcome the teething troubles of The Polar Express (Tom Hank’s cold dead eyes, for a start, are no longer present in this film. Neither is Tom Hanks, for which we can be eternally grateful), his previous film shot with motion capture technology. The main characters look astoundingly lifelike – Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s Mother in particular will make you stop and stare. For other reasons too. Beowulf himself is a pixel perfect hero, and even the shock of Ray Winstone’s central London accent amongst a crowd of, variously, Welsh, Irish and Scandinavian quickly diminishes.

Obviously Beowulf isn’t perfect – few films are. The crowd scenes get a little fuzzy around the edges and the eyes still aren’t quite perfect – but still a great improvement. The non-essential characters obviously didn’t have as much time spent on making them look perfectly realistic, but then they are mostly acting as ammunition for Crispin Glover’s Grendel to launch about the feasting hall, so you don’t really mind. Overall, the film doesn’t quite know what it wants to be – legendary comic book maestro Neil Gaiman and Pulp Fiction co-author Roger Avary have written a hero saga that is also a satire on the heroic saga, which at some points (the Austin Powers style obscuring of Beowulf’s genitalia during his fight with Grendel, for example) feels a little bit over complex. Nonetheless, this film will absolutely blow you away, and you won’t stop watching for a second. With catchphrases to rival 300 in the minds of fans everywhere, Beowulf is a visual and mental feast.

Marcus Kelly