First Thoughts on Beowulf

Film: Beowulf (Digital 3-D)
Date: Sunday. November 18th, 2007
Theater: Muvico Egyptian 24- Arundel Mills Mall
Cost of Ticket: 9.50 (matinée plus extra "3-D fee")
Cost of Concessions: 0.00 (it was ten in the morning)
Cost of Parking: 0.00

Total Cost: 9.50

Notes: Well, the time has finally arrived. After rumors that sounded too ludicrous to be true, a foreign live-action version that is not half-bad, a WTF? sci-fi version starring Christopher Lambert, and about a billion dollars worth of hype, Beowulf, the big-budget spectacular, is here. Fear not, it does what it needs to do.

I was initially boggled by all the choices. Beowulf 2-D? Beowulf Digital 3-D? Beowulf IMAX? Beowulf IMAX Digital 3-D? I chose the Digital 3-D, despite the fact that it meant a trip to the suburbs and a close encounter with Ravens fans and their tailgating. This Sunday's early box office reports suggest I was not alone, and may mean a new reason you have to see it on the big screen (not that you will, necessarily).

Another in a recent spate of manly man movies. the film attempts to re-tell the epic poem, performed by anonymous scops and written down by Christianizing monks, as if you are getting the "true story" behind the legend. Some critics have assumed it is a parody of the poem, others have given it a "C-"... I understand their angst, but have to disagree.

Yes, major changes were made to text that I think were necessary to have the story make some degree of sense to a modern audience. Disparate elements are connected and the clash of two religions illustrated (Jesus v. Odin). Despite my familiarity with the text due to teaching it, I could live with the changes, and have often played up the same elements the film does to make this ancient and at-times inscrutable poem interesting to the youth of today.

Speaking of those youth, it is very clear that the filmmakers' intention was to zero in and dead-on target teenage boys, and those guns are firing on all cylinders. Dragons, monsters, swords and sorcery, practically naked animated Angelina Jolie... it is fair to say that my inner teenager was having a heck of a time. My adult self was not so happy with the tendency of the film to assume all women are demons in some form or the other, but in this post-everything world, women may go to the film and not be offended at all. Statistically, women went to see 300 which, in part, gave the green light for the marketing push for this film.

I do wonder if the occasional anti-Christian touches in the film are just what the filmmakers thought they could get away with and still have the film play in the heartland. It could reflect a new trend which may question or criticize the tendencies of those who follow the "Christ God." It seems, in a general cultural sense, that films like 30 Days of Night (sold with the hook line "Oh, God..." followed by a vampire saying "No God.") and The Golden Compass are part of a new calibration of the Hollywood machine. It could be just as calculated as the "just on the edge of R" violence, nudity, and sexuality on display throughout the movie. I cannot wait for the "Beowulf: Unrated and Outrageous!" DVD. The digital possibilities are endless.

Well, in any case, there are many good reasons to go and see this film in the theaters. I would suggest seeing it in 3-D. Even someone with ocular difficulties like myself had a good time and enjoyed the effect. I left the film contented and entertained.

Well, I will be out of town for a few days, and will resume my film regimen upon my return. Until then...