Just saw "Beowulf" in Imax 3D

[Nevernose]

It was good.

The Pros:
It was Beowulf. Violence galore -- an all-'round great adventure tale. Plus, my parents (English teachers both) have been telling me that story since I was five years old. In both the modern and the old English, and I taught my own daughter to read from the Heaney translation as much as I did from Harry Potter or Clifford the Big Red Dog. It didn't follow the story precisely, and yet it didn't leave anything out. Without giving away too many spoilers, it took the original story and just added a few twists. Nothing was missing, but it took the three parts and made linear sense of them, plus it added a new theme.

The animation was superb -- at times I couldn't even tell it was "a cartoon," and most of the time I was so sucked into the story that I didn't even care.

Grendel and his Mother had "funny" pronunciations, according to my 11 year old. It was a good attempt at maintaining the verisimilitude of the original; they also had many references to the rival pagan/Christian belief structures in play at the time. Afterwards, most people seemed oksy -- even pleased -- with that. It seemed to add something.

The Cons:
If you're an English major, you'll notice two things about Grendel and his Mother: Grendel's Old English sounded more like a thickly pronounced Middle English than Anglo-Saxon, and Grendel's Mother apparently spoke modern English with an OE accent. I found myself translating not only to my kid, but to the people sitting nearby (after being asked).

The 3D was cool, but I have bad eyes. I constantly had to refocus, and even then most things were slightly out of focus. Last spring I saw a 3D Disney movie on vacation in Anaheim,and their 3D glasses were big enough so that I could put my glasses on under the 3D specs. And apparently even normally-sighted people had trouble following "Beowulf" for ninety-plus minutes. I'd still recommend people see the 3D version, though -- it was good and the future of cinema.

[ruiner4u]

1. Awesome review...

thank you...


sometimes its nice to have a review thats a, well, review...

[Beausoir]

2. Delete. Commented on the wrong movie. Sorry.

[Omphaloskepsis]

3. This is completely off topic... But...

I was a projectionist for three years and have always dreamed of playing with a IMAX projector. </nerd>

[Nevernose]

4. No need to "end nerd"

Me too. When I got to play w/ the 70 mm "Garndma's attic" during a retrospective, I thought T was in heaven. The case came complete e/ "Union Proud!" stickers attached, 30 years after the fact.

[Frank Cannon]

5. I saw it in 3D yesterday too

My wife didn't care for it. Despite the fact that it's based on a classic of English literature, it really is kind of a "guy" film.

The 3D and "cinematography" were amazing, though. I can't imagine not seeing this movie in 3D.

[Shine]

6. We're seeing the matinee today with ShineBoy and all his peeps for his 14th bd

we're seeing it at our local theater which doesn't have the special 3D projector, so I'm wondering how it'll look up on screen.

We'll find out...

:hi:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Nice post, Hrothgar.

[DesEtoiles]

8. Irony - Gerard Butler starred in Beowulf about 3 years ago -- then he did

300 and that was a wild success, and then a re-make of his re-make, done in the style of his big hit is also a farily big hit. It's kind of a strange story.