So, the world’s biggest comic book and, by extension, comic book/sci-fi and fantasy movie convention, the San Diego Comic-Con International (2007, to give it its full title) got underway last night with its now traditional Preview Night.
Normally, Preview Nights are quiet affairs – the main floor, with its thousands of booths and stands promoting and selling everything from videogames to T-shirts to comic books to movies to toys, opens from 6pm until 9pm, and then we can all go home.But, in a move that suggests just how big Comic-Con has become (this year promises to be the biggest yet, with 150,000 people tipped to attend over the four full days proper), Preview Night played host to a special preview screening of Real D 3D footage from Robert Zemeckis’ latest animated movie, Beowulf.
You can watch the trailer here.
Based on the classic, and extremely ancient, Old English language poem about a noble warrior who rises to prominence after battling a demon called Grendel, and then his mother, Beowulf takes the CG motion capture techniques used by Zemeckis on The Polar Express to new heights, and with a cast that doesn’t merely involve different iterations of Tom Hanks.
Instead, we have astonishing photo-real representations of Angelina Jolie, as Grendel’s extraordinarily evil yet sexy mother; Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, who enlists Beowulf’s help; John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson and Robin Wright Penn.
Intriguingly, though, Ray Winstone has been cast as Beowulf. However, while the voice and mannerisms are Winstone’s, the titular warrior’s rippling physique belongs to one Aaron Stephens. Co-writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, who have been working on the movie for nigh on a decade now, admitted that it was precisely this freedom – to give Beowulf a fizzog other than Winstone’s – that convinced them that Zemeckis was right to use Mo-Cap. (They’d also been struggling with the story, which sees Beowulf age from twentysomething to seventysomething near the film’s climax; with Mo-Cap, the need to ‘age’ an actor was eliminated).But, as far as Empire is concerned, did Zemeckis make the right decision?
Well, early signs are very encouraging. The animation in Beowulf is simply astonishing – skin textures, facial nuances, backgrounds, hair, water and metal are all rendered with amazing precision and in staggering detail. And Zemeckis has even made massive progress with the Polar Express’ biggest flaw: the dead zombie-like eyes of its human protagonists.
So, it looks beautiful – and the tone and mood of the film is quite unlike any animated movie released this year. Gaiman and Avary – two articulate and engaging speakers – were at pains to tell us that what we saw last night was the movie’s second reel – the only completed footage in the entire film. So what did we see? Good question. And please beware of spoilers – we know you all probably studied this in school, but just in case, this contains news about the fate of a major character.
The reel starts off at the tail-end of the battle between the demon Grendel (voiced by Crispin Glover), which has been terrorising the King and his people in their great hall of Heorot, and a fully nude Beowulf (private parts artfully obscured by a raised sword here, a helmeted head there; although Beowulf will be PG-13, Zemeckis is keen not to push the envelope that much). We then intercut between the two combatants – the arrogance of Beowulf as he exults in victory and is toasted by the King and his court, and the tragedy of Grendel as he crawls back home and dies in the arms of his mother, in a heart-rending scene that gives depth and shade to this misunderstood monster.
Then comes the best scene of the reel, as Jolie’s mother – at this point, virtually unseen save for a golden, scaled hand and a huge tail – rears up in anger and, in one breathtaking and doomladen p.o.v shot, swoops through the countryside, into the hall where Beowulf lies sleeping and… well, let’s just say that when he wakes up, he and Hrothgar know that their problems aren’t over. It’s an excellent scene – dark, and genuinely scary.
And so Beowulf sets off to conquer Grendel’s mother, venturing into her lair, only to find temptation in his path as the horrible, scaly beastie transforms into a shimmering, extremely photo-realistic and therefore gorgeous Angelina Jolie, who asks him to help her sire another child. A complex and perplexing scene, this may be the sexiest piece of animation we can think of in some time – if you thought A Bug’s Life gave you the horn, you ain’t seen nothing yet. And this isn’t simply because Jolie’s character is fully nude throughout (albeit with her golden skin blending into human skin in strategic areas, and – crucially, if Zemeckis wants to keep the PG-13 – the only nipples on display belong to Beowulf). Instead, it’s her attitude – confident, unyielding, controlling – as she bamboozles Beowulf with seductive reasoning and offers of great power that simply sizzles, and reinforces Zemeckis’ intention to make Beowulf a truly adult piece of entertainment, in a genre that more often than not has strictly been, y’know, for kids.
And there we left it – (we did get a glimpse of a teaser trailer and a quick taster reel which showcased brief clips from action that wasn’t in reel 2, from a climactic fight with a dragon to some glimpses of Grendel in full marauding mode).
Very impressed by what we’d seen, but at the same time, not exactly blown away. How so? Because we’re just not sure whether the much-vaunted Real D 3D technique in which the film will mainly be shown is really ready yet – or maybe it’s ready, and it’s the audience who are lagging behind. Who knows? Certainly, the Real D system is miles ahead of previous 3D efforts – the image is still slightly blurry at times, especially when there’s a great deal of movement on screen, but generally it’s crisper, clearer, and the colours are richer than before.
But – apart from the odd startling effect, and an improved depth of field, sadly it still feels like a gimmick, with characters pointing at the screen for no apparent reason other than to freak out the couple in Row L. Watching 3D can still be a disconcerting experience, although happily we found ourselves adjusting after about eight minutes or so. So perhaps a full-length movie won’t be such a burden, after all.
However, as things stand, we’d probably recommend that you watch the movie in traditional 2D first, just so you know what’s going on when you slip on those funky new glasses. Beowulf is released in November – stay tuned to Empire and our video diaries for more on this ground-breaking movie, including interviews with Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary.
Chris Hewitt