Sunday, January 11, 2009

BEOWULF (Robert Zemeckis, 2007, USA) Beowulf fights the coolest Dragon since Harry Potter took on the Hungarian Horntail! I wasn't expecting a literal adaptation of the epic poem (fortunately) because Gaiman and Avery take many liberties with the plot and add fist-pumping testosterone-fueled macho dialogue spoken with the sincerity of a Shakespearean drama (didn't I write something similar for Frank Miller's 300?). I suppose it's a necessity for heroes to grunt and shout their names loudly and proclaim their great deeds while getting drunk; come to think of it, that's pretty much how I spent last weekend. Anyway, BEOWULF would have worked better as a live action film because the animation makes the actors look rubbery and expressionless though the creatures look ferocious; it's a D&D geek's wet dream! The limb-shredding, head-chewing, blood-spurting violence resembles a video-game and that's the main fault with this film: It's like playing MORROWIND: OBLIVION on my Playstation 3 in High-Definition. Neil Gaiman understands one thing about storytelling: It need not happen to be true: it's the legend that survives. (C)