Entertainment, Movies - Marine Corps Times

Almost overkill

Director Robert Zemeckis’ new animated, 3-D “Beowulf” is undeniably entertaining — but maybe not for the right reasons.

Yes, it’s big, loud and beautiful, the CGI effects are cool, and Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery do a fine job streamlining the sprawling story. Still, it feels just a bit wrong to hang so many bells and whistles on one of the most famous tales in all literature.

It already has all the juiciest ingredients of great storytelling: love, hate, death, family, faith, courage and heroism; the corruptive nature of power; and the way in which mortal men pass into the mists of legend — occasionally within their own lifetimes.

In sixth-century Denmark, the realm of King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) is beset by a monster — a drooling, rancid, fetid, pustule-pocked thing named Grendel that regularly emerges from its dank, dark cavern for a bout of wanton killing and destruction.

Hrothgar announces he’ll handsomely reward anyone who can destroy Grendel. Answering the call is Beowulf (Ray Winstone), a vain and boastful sort (did he kill nine sea monsters, or only three?) but blessed with plenty of warrior heart and brawn.

In an epic battle in Hrothgar’s mead hall, Beowulf defeats Grendel and thinks his task is done. But it’s only just begun; the monster’s demon mother wants revenge, and she’s even stronger and more cunning than her son.

Beowulf must again rise to a challenge — one about which old Hrothgar knows much more than he lets on. And it will consume Beowulf for the rest of his life.

The film uses motion capture, the same technique used to create Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” films — sensors are pasted on live actors, whose movements are captured and reproduced in digital form.

But where that film mixed CGI and live elements, “Beowulf” is fully computer animated, in the same style Zemeckis used in his 2004 film “The Polar Express.”

The technology clearly has advanced since then. In close-ups of faces, the details are startling — wrinkles around the mouth, the swish of a lock of hair.

But one big issue remains: If the eyes are windows to the soul, then this form of animation is still soulless. Characters’ eyes are dull and empty, like those of a doll, and they don’t always align; Queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn), for example, seems perpetually cross-eyed.

Still, that quibble pales next to the questionable decision to release the film in 3-D as well as plain old 2-D. Yes, the 3-D version is a grabber; when Beowulf uses his sword to split open the long neck of a sea monster and sheets of blood seem to cascade right off the screen, it’s a hoot. Similarly, Beowulf’s climactic battle with a huge, fire-breathing dragon is nothing short of awesome.

And when Grendel’s mother finally appears as a 3-D, digitally stylized, thisclosetonaked Angelina Jolie — with golden high heels and swishing tail — there’s just one thing to say: Yowza.

But it’s strictly a gimmick, and it wears thin. The glasses are an increasingly uncomfortable nuisance as the film moves into its second hour. And the 3-D effects become a distraction; you react to each effect to such a degree that its context within the story is obscured, if not lost.

There’s a reason this epic has been read, sung, celebrated and studied for more than a millennium. What’s next, a Smell-O-Vision version of “The Odyssey”?

In the end, your enjoyment of “Beowulf” will rest largely on your affinity for such technical tricks. Comics and animation geeks (dat’s me!) will get a decent kick out of it. But others may find it a flawed novelty at best.

Rated PG-13 (but could be R) for violence, sexual references.