I have seen Beowulf in 3D Imax at the transit road Regal 18 in Lancaster. The movie itself was less than stellar. I found myself bored at times as the characterizations were flat and uninteresting. I felt like the actors were restrained by their mocap suits and lack of real sets in the CG extravaganza. It lacked passion and fire. Ironically both were rendered nicely as CG effects. The CG was amazingly real. Too real. The realism was so real that it required more of it to convey the emotions of the acting. The most successful character was Grendel, who was the most unrealistic. his deformed caricatured tortured visage worked better as a cg character then the photo real humans did. I think this is part of that uncanny valley. Things that are too real, don’t look right, because they are not 100%.
Now the 3D part of the film was very well done. Most of the action lay behind the screen depth with very little breaking frame. There were a few eye poke moments that were uncalled for and stood out as “HEY THIS IS 3D and WE ARE GOING TO SHOW IT!” They were unnecessary and broke the illusion of the reality pulling you out of the film.
Overall I’d recommend seeing it in 3D for there is no bigger 3D spectacle than Beowulf. The film was better than most, but still lacking.Its nice to see an animated film that is not designed for children, but in a bold experiment gone wrong, its not good enough nor will audiences embrace this kind of film for it to be a sounding bell for mature animation in the states.
