Monday, March 17, 2008

by Ari

I thought it would take some sort of miracle to convince me that a motion-capture animated movie could work after I saw The Polar Express. I enjoyed what Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis and the LOTR team did with Gollum, but the reason that worked so well was because it was a creature that blended in with a half fantasy/half real environment. It's always interesting when good filmmakers like Robert Zemeckis try new things with new technology, but Polar Express was a disaster, not just because of the horrible animation, but also due to the uninspired, often baffling story and the seriously absurd ending. I didn't have high expectations for Beowulf, but this thing is only a tiny bit better. It gets points for being more ambitious and complex, and it does have a great cast (Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, etc) but it looks ridiculous. The camera swings around so much it made me dizzy, the story is unevenly paced (which is somewhat understandable considering the source material and the changes that were made) and there's no real emotional punch to hook the audience. I just don't understand what people find so appealing about this. Maybe Avatar will change my mind when it hits theaters later next year.