Beowulf [Gaming]

Beowulf is a 2007 performance capture action film based on the Old English epic poem of the same name.

Inspired by the epic Old English poem of the same name, director Robert Zemeckis’s digitally rendered film follows the Scandinavian hero Beowulf as he fights to protect the Danes from a ferocious beast named Grendel.

The warrior Beowulf must fight and defeat the monster Grendel who is terrorizing towns, and later, Grendel’s mother, who begins killing out of revenge.

Long on drool and short on manners, the nasty-looking brute hates noise—so much so, in fact, that when King Hrothgar throws a party in his nearby mead hall, Grendel goes nuts and slaughters most of the revelers.

Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th to the 11th century,, and relates events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden.

The debate might be framed starkly as follows: on the one hand, we can hypothesize a poem put together from various tales concerning the hero.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique used in The Polar Express.

“Beowulf” stars RAY WINSTONE in the title role and ANTHONY HOPKINS as the corrupt King Hrothgar, as well as JOHN MALKOVICH, ROBIN WRIGHT PENN, BRENDAN GLEESON, CRISPIN GLOVER, ALISON LOHMAN and ANGELINA JOLIE as Grendel’s mother.

Though Beowulf is boastful in the beginning, we see him age and mellow as the film progresses—to the point at which he takes responsibility for his own mistakes and sacrifices his own life for the lives of others around him.

The cast includes Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Alison Lohman, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Brendan Gleeson, and Angelina Jolie.

After being challenged by Hrothgar, Grendel runs off into the night.

Examination of Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry for evidence of oral-formulaic composition has met with mixed response.

Oh, yes… back in the day, when heroes were heroes and monsters polluted Scandinavia like so many thistles, there was a particularly odious beastie named Grendel.

The cast members of Beowulf were filmed on a motion capture stage.

Beowulf is fatally wounded in the final battle, and after his death he is buried in a barrow in Geatland by his retainers.

I didn’t expect a lot from ‘Beowulf’, for lots of reasons, most of which were to do with the casting: incorrigibly cockney Ray Winstone as a warrior from what’s now southern Sweden; wacky John Malkovich as a cynical counselor; loony Crispin Glover as a flesh-rending monster, and weirdest of all, Angelina Jolie as the monster’s mother…thaet waes wundorlic castyng, as the poet might have put it.

Unfortunately for Hrothgar and Beowulf, Grendel has a mother, and we all know that when mama’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy.

The acting honours, or at least the animation honours, go to Robin Wright Penn as the pale and melancholy queen; she has moments of subtle hesitation and sadness that struck me as a triumph of CGI acting.

Columbia Pictures was set to distribute the film, but Steven Bing did not finalize a deal, and arranged with Paramount Pictures for U.S. distribution and Warner Bros.

Author Neil Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary wrote a screen adaptation of Beowulf in May 1997 they had met while working on a film adaptation of Gaiman’s The Sandman in 1996, before Warner Bros.