Beowulf at Comic-Con

Crispin Glover with Adam. Yes this was at Sundance, so sue me.

COMIC-CON 2007! REPORT #1

The Boneman, Sheldon, Tyler, and I arrive in San Diego at about 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, July 25th. We check into our hotel and make our way to the San Diego Convention Center. We're pumped. After driving around for a good twenty minutes, it becomes completely apparent that finding a parking space is going to be a bitch. There are already thousands of geeks on hand for "Preview Night". So, we decide it best that The Boneman, Sheldon, and Tyler jump out of the car and run into the convention center to get credentials. I continue to look for a damn parking space. Finally, I luck out and find a place to park. As I'm walking towards the convention center, The Boneman calls me on my cell and tells me that he bumped into some of the comingsoon.com guys. They tell him that there's a Beowulf presentation going down at The Horton Plaza in just under two hours. As it turns out, I had RSVP'd for a Beowulf presentation the next morning, but I get in my head that perhaps the shebang going on this particular evening is something different. Perhaps they're screening the entire movie! Since we don't have a whole hell of a lot going on this first night, we go up to Horton to check it out. As it turns out, it's the exact same presentation we have lined up for the next morning. We opt to go to this one instead, thereby freeing up the next morning to wait in line for the first presentation of the day (Paramount). The question remained, would we be able to get into the presentation this fine, warm evening. Actually, it was quite easy. We didn't even have to check in. They just sort of let us into the screening room without any hassle. Sadly though, getting into the after party would not be so easy. Anyway, on with the Beowulf presentation.

BEOWULF

It was our hope that perhaps we'd get to see an entire rough cut of Beowulf. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. But then how could it? The film is still deep in production. What we did get was a nifty introduction by writers Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Mirror-Mask) and Roger Avary (Killing Zoe and co-writer on Pulp Fiction), and a screening of the entire second reel. And it was in 3-D no less. This new visual feast from director Robert Zemeckis is based on the famed poem, a piece that has the virtue of being the oldest bit of English literature known to man. The film adaptation is being brought to life through the motion capture process (the same technique used in The Polar Express and Monster House). Beowulf tells the ancient tale of a warrior dispatched to destroy Grendel, a horrible, demonic creature hell bent on wreaking havoc upon king Hroðgar and his part of Denmark. After defeating the monster, Beowulf becomes the target of Grendel's vengeful mother, but the plans she has for the fearless warrior might not be what you expect. Through the second reel, we were given glimpses of Grendel (played by Crispin Glover – odd given the eccentric actor's turbulent history with Robert Zemeckis – I guess they made up) causing mischief, and the fierce Beowulf kicking ass and taking names. The highlight of the second reel came in the form of a sexually charged sequence in which Grendel's strangely beautiful mother (played by the sexually charged Angelina Jolie) puts the moves on an easily swayed Beowulf.

So I must admit, I wasn't overly ecstatic by the technology on display in this movie. We've seen the motion capture process put to use in The Polar Express (a film I maintain is grossly overrated) and the exceptional Monster House, so visually, this doesn't feel new. And in fact, much of the footage, had a Play Station feel to it. Each of the film's characters resemble their human counterparts save for lead Ray Winston. Winstone the actor is a terrific performer (you may remember him as Jack Nicholson's right hand man in The Departed) and I suspect that's why he was cast as the lead here, but I found it increasingly odd that of the entire cast, his character Beowulf is the only part in the piece who doesn't resemble the actor playing him. Perhaps that's because Winstone the man doesn't look like a fierce warrior. Whatever the case may be, I was somewhat distracted by this.

The beginning of this reel had a distinct 300 feel to it. While I'm fully aware that Beowulf predates 300 by hundreds of years, I couldn't shake images of Gerard Butler battling the enemy and spouting moral boosting lines in Zack Snyder's similar looking epic. Bad timing I suppose.

As for the story, it's pretty faithful to the source material although Avary revealed he did take liberties. He says that in regards to the poem, there are things that aren't fully explored (such as Grendel's choice to not inflict harm on King Hrothgar), so he thought it might be fun to fill in the blanks. The choices Avery makes to fill in these blanks are quite interesting. I'd rather not go into them here, because I don't want to give too much away.

So, I suppose it's unfair for me to pass judgement on this movie because I only saw the second reel. At a glance, I feel like Beowulf might be more effective if Zemeckis took the Lord of the Rings route. Instead, he's opted to use motion capture. I suppose a live action Beowulf would take a little too much money to produce. As it stands, even this animated version is costing a shit load of money to bring to the screen. I look forward to seeing the finished project, but I'd be lying if I said I was completely blown away by what I saw. I don't know. I just think there's something a wee bit impersonal about this process. It's a little to video game-ish for my taste. Still, the 3-D aspect really added energy to the proceedings.

Beowulf, starring Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins, and Crispin Glover, opens this November. Gaiman and Avary revealed that the film makers are going for a PG-13 (which shocked the hell out of me – some of the stuff we saw here was a bit on the extreme side) but that Zemeckis has flirted with the idea of an un-rated Imax version. We should know more soon.