WE CAN NAME HIM "BOB," OR WE CAN NAME HIM...
Beowulf
AMC Hampton Towne Center 24
Hampton, VA
DLP Projection
11/24/07
The morning after I saw The Mist, my Dad and I went to see Beowulf. I'm not quite sure what to think. It feels a little distant to me, but that may be because it doesn't really feel like the motion capture animation technique has progressed to a point where it doesn't feel gimmicky. It feels like we're watching a step towards something, but we're not quite there yet. Still, it looks better than what I saw of The Polar Express.
I haven't pretended to read Beowulf since college, so I had to go back and see exactly how the original poem went. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery's screenplay covers the three main events of the original (Beowulf fights Grendel, Beowulf fights Grendel's mom, Beowulf fights a dragon), but integrates the events in a different way, while still acknowledging that the story told in the poem is still valid as a story. The film is about storytelling, and about how the story of a hero is sometimes as important or even more important than the reality of the hero himself. That's what's interesting about Beowulf.
Which brings us to the 3-D. I figured that if I was going to see this in a theater, I had to see it in 3-D. We tried to see it in IMAX on Thanksgiving, but the Riverside IMAX was not open as early as advertised. So we saw it at my old theater in their new DLP house and paid the two extra dollars for the 3-D glasses and saw the oldest story in English told with the most advanced technology available. In 3-D. But here's the thing. As impressive as the 3-D effect is, I'm not sure it's any less of a gimmick that it was when introduced in the 1950s. It doesn't do anything to immerse the viewer in the story, because it still isn't true three dimensions. It's still action on a series of panes and we're already viewing a two dimensional image with the illusion of depth anyway, so the effect doesn't do anything more than distract from the story. So as a storytelling device, I'm not really sure if 3-D adds anything. I'm not sure it's necessary.
But I could be wrong.
BeowulfAMC Hampton Towne Center 24
Hampton, VA
DLP Projection
11/24/07
The morning after I saw The Mist, my Dad and I went to see Beowulf. I'm not quite sure what to think. It feels a little distant to me, but that may be because it doesn't really feel like the motion capture animation technique has progressed to a point where it doesn't feel gimmicky. It feels like we're watching a step towards something, but we're not quite there yet. Still, it looks better than what I saw of The Polar Express.
I haven't pretended to read Beowulf since college, so I had to go back and see exactly how the original poem went. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery's screenplay covers the three main events of the original (Beowulf fights Grendel, Beowulf fights Grendel's mom, Beowulf fights a dragon), but integrates the events in a different way, while still acknowledging that the story told in the poem is still valid as a story. The film is about storytelling, and about how the story of a hero is sometimes as important or even more important than the reality of the hero himself. That's what's interesting about Beowulf.
Which brings us to the 3-D. I figured that if I was going to see this in a theater, I had to see it in 3-D. We tried to see it in IMAX on Thanksgiving, but the Riverside IMAX was not open as early as advertised. So we saw it at my old theater in their new DLP house and paid the two extra dollars for the 3-D glasses and saw the oldest story in English told with the most advanced technology available. In 3-D. But here's the thing. As impressive as the 3-D effect is, I'm not sure it's any less of a gimmick that it was when introduced in the 1950s. It doesn't do anything to immerse the viewer in the story, because it still isn't true three dimensions. It's still action on a series of panes and we're already viewing a two dimensional image with the illusion of depth anyway, so the effect doesn't do anything more than distract from the story. So as a storytelling device, I'm not really sure if 3-D adds anything. I'm not sure it's necessary.
But I could be wrong.
posted by PunchBuggyBlues at 7:32 PM
2 Comments:
If it's any consolation, being red/green colorblind effectively means that 3-D effects do nothing for me.
Imagine that sequence in Black Dossier (which I still need to build time to read -- just based on a flip-through; damn-you pre-service teaching!) looking much like it does au naturale, only with a red filter over one eye, and a blue filter over the other, and you'll get an idea of my frustration at the whole endeavor.
Overall, though, thumbs-up for Zimeckis/Gaiman/Avery?
And how keen are we on the Aja/Gaiman/Avery team-up on Black Hole?
For some reason The Black Hole is off my radar. I'd be interested in anything Gaiman does and I think Aja has a good movie in him somewhere, even if I haven't seen any thing yet by him that I've wholly liked.
As for Beowulf, I think I liked it, but I don't know if I ever need to see it again.
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