Beowulf (Unrated Director's Cut)

      Spectacular animated action scenes turn the ancient epic poem Beowulf into a modern fantasy movie, while motion-capture technology transforms plump actor Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) into a burly Nordic warrior. When a Danish kingdom is threatened by the monster Grendel (voiced and physicalized by Crispin Glover, River's Edge), Beowulf--lured by the promise of heroic glory--comes to rescue them. He succeeds, but falls prey to the seductive power of Grendel's mother, played by Angelina Jolie... and as Jolie's pneumatically animated form rises from an underground lagoon with demon-claw high heels, it becomes clear that we're leaving the original epic far, far behind. Regrettably, the motion-capture process has made only modest improvements since The Polar Express; while the characters' eyes no longer look so flat and zombie-like, their faces remain inexpressive and movements are still wooden. As a result, the most effective sequences feature wildly animated battles and the most vivid character is Grendel, whose grotesqueness ends up making him far more sympathetic than any of the mannequin-like human beings. The meant-to-be-titillating images of a naked Jolie resemble an inflatable doll more than a living, breathing woman (or succubus, as the case may be). But the fights--particularly Grendel's initial assault on the celebration hut--pop with lushly animated gore and violence. Also featuring the CGI-muffled talents of Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs), Robin Wright Penn (The Princess Bride), and John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons).

Comment:
      Good stories can't die off. They live on by being retold again for every new generation. My condolences to the purists: this telling speaks to today's generation.

What's of this generation is great. Star power includes Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and scripting by Neil Gaiman. The animation (yes, it's animation) represents the very best of this generation too. Jolie has voice credits, but she clearly gave a lot more than her voice to the animators. Ditto Hopkins, who transformed expertly into Hrothgar - computerized alchemy explored the ridiculous idea that Hopkins could ever be dumpy, but did so convincingly. Fussy bits, hair and beard among them, set this animation ahead of others, but so do the other aspects of cinema and artistry. Today's best animation comes up short of reality, but this comes right up to the best of today's animation.

The story itself survived largely intact. Specialists (I can name one) will be disappointed - but they always are. The graphic novel might be the literary form of the emerging generation, and this speaks directly in that idiom as only computer animation can. Even with that, real tensions with real ambiguities come through. The odd logic of senior wife protecting junior doxy and vice versa gives a little to think about, even if only a little.

If you want the grandest of comic books, you came to the right place. After a thousand years of telling, maybe more, this story still fits well between the covers of today's comics. Then, once comic-fied, it becomes the grandest of comic-book movies. Whoever did "300" did well, but was just practicing. "Beowulf" is what they practiced for.