Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Beowulf in 2D

As previously mentioned, the other movie I watched this weekend was Beowulf. I enjoyed the movie well enough, but have to admit it was disappointing in a few areas, probably because my expectations were pretty high.

There were several distractingly gratuitous scenes that were clearly designed with the 3-D version in mind, like a spear pointing at the screen, a handful of coins bouncing towards the viewer, etc. You get the idea. Each one made me go "Oh, right, they made a 3-D version... which I'm not watching." The funny thing is, I'm not sure the 3-D version would have been any better (does adding a third dimension actually improve a movie, or is it just a gimmick? - I'm going to say gimmick).

In the scene where Beowulf fights Grendel, he does so in the nude, which makes sense in the context of the story. But for some reason, the director decided to deal with this through the use of strategically placed sword handles, steins of mead, etc, which often fell into place at the last possible second. It was comically clunky and obvious (but not quite funny), and reminded me of something that belonged in a Leslie Nealson movie, or maybe Shrek. Quite distracting from the overall experience.

Sooooo... it was an alright movie. I enjoyed it, except for the all-too-frequent points of distraction mentioned above. Still, it was certainly worth the $1 I paid to Redbox for the rental and probably worth the 2 hours I spent watching it.

3 comments:

revolution said...

we watched the 3d version of harry potter last summer. it was definitely worth it. very engrossing. i'd do it again, with certain movies.

Unknown said...

I bet that would be good - because it was a good movie in 2D already, and I can't think of any particular scenes that were there just for 3D effect.

I guess 3D can be a net improvement, if it's done for some reason other than "Whoa, it's like that spear is coming right at me..."

Gabe said...

I remember Wired describing the new digital 3D as worlds apart from the old, clunky version. Possibly so revolutionary that all future movies would be made to accomodate this style, much like color replaced black and white.