Ms Joline Beowulf The real Ray Winston
Action fantasy movies are not my favorite genre but to appease my darling husband I went along with him to see Beowulf. Not only did we see it in 3D but on a massive, size of 5 buses, IMAX screen in the new cinema in MegaBox, Kowloon Bay. We splashed out a bit, well it was Friday, on our $115 seats but I thought in for a penny in for a pound, lets have the maximum sensory experience possible.
I was not disappointed. It was the best experience in a cinema I have ever had. Not only was it a great story based on the Anglo-Saxon epic with our hero Beowulf fighting, and beating, impossibly grotesque monsters and thus becoming King. It incorporates computer generated images which are so realistic and surprising the action made me jump out of my skin spilling my popcorn approximately once every 15 minutes. The way that cgi cinema in 3D can have this effect on our minds is extraordinary. The IMAX screen made it necessary to really turn my head and look to see what was happening in each scene which had the effect of allowing my guard to be down so I was suitably shocked by something whizzing up from the bottom of the screen or the top or the side to start yet another gory, blood soaked fight.
I wholeheartedly recommend this movie. Go and see it, make sure you get your snazzy 3D glasses and if possible find an IMAX screen for the best impact. A word of advice - don't take your children to see it. It is very scary and contains bawdy sexual references not at all suitable for 11 year olds which is what PG means.
I know that Ray Winston is a man in his middle 50's and looks nothing like the perfectly toned six pack muscular Beowulf depicted in this movie, although I am not too sure if the body of Angelina Jolie's was also digitally (or surgically) enhanced to look stunningly sexy and seductive, she may actually look like that apart from the cloven high heels obviously. But it made me think that we are not far off having no need for real live actors in movies. In a few years time filmmakers could do just what they want with any body they want with no necessity to pay their lead men or woman the millions of dollars they demand at the moment. Beowulf was so realistic that in some scenes it was hard to distinguish animation from real life. I predict that it won't be long before we will see cgi porn in 3D, now that would be scary on an IMAX screen.
For more film reviews, not just Beowulf, try listening to Mark Kermode on Radio 5. He's da man!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/kermode/
Posted by: Lesley | December 05, 2007 at 02:09 PM