Beowulf

Friday, December 14, 2007

Bourne Ultimatum is, I think, clearly the best action movie of 2007. Probably best of the last several years. But Beowulf should get special recognition for best over-the-top action of the year. Sorry, Live Free or Die Hard. Maybe Live Free-er or Die Harder will fare better.


It took me forever to see this one. I wasn't really excited for it at all, until I came to my senses and said, "Dude. It's Robert Zemeckis. You fucking love Zemeckis. He directed your favorite movie ever. You owe it to him to see his new one, even if it does look like gay-ass Lord of the Rings shit."

So, as far as these mo-cap movies go that Zemeckis has been involved with, Beowulf isn't as good as his Polar Express or Gil Kenan's Monster House, but it is still pretty fucking sweet. It has a lot of big goofy performances, big goofy special effects and big goofy action, but done perfectly. It achieves hyper-exaggeratedly, almost satirical badassness.

The 3-D looks pretty amazing, except when they actually throw shit right at your face and try to make it look like it's coming off the screen. Then it just looks blurry and indistinct. I don't know, maybe it's something wrong with my eyes. It also was giving me eye strain after a while. I definitely don't see 3-D as the future of movies, but I do like it as an occasional gimmick.

Just one of the action scenes in Beowulf would be worth the price of admission on it's own, but there are a solid 4 great action sequences. Especially the brief story he tells of fighting a team of sea-monsters (which contains the funniest, most ridiculous moment in the whole film) and his climactic face-off against a dragon. In the final scene, he does a heroic act of self-mutilation to kill the villain, even topping McClane shooting through himself and into the bad guy in Live Free or Die Hard. So, sorry again LFoDH. Up until last night, I really thought it was gonna be your year.