a few of my friend recommend i go and see beowulf . they all say that the story wasn not much but that visually it be amaze and to make sure i see it in 3 d. the story be almost frighteningly small . beowulf turn up to a kingdom ( and a small kingdom at that and it seem to be one hall big sometimes ) to rid the king of a monster ( warn spoiler from here on in ) and do so only to find out the king be actually the father of the monster a he would sleep with the monster mother who also a monster but be play by angelina jolie help make bestiality understandable . beowulf then become king and sleep with the monster jolie and then a monster son come after him . only this time the monster be a dragon . sound great doesn not it . full of action . we will to a degree it be full of action but the way producer or director robert zemekis be choose to do it ( entirely in 3 d cgi graphic ) end up destroy most of the excitement to be have from this story . the whole film be do a 3 d cgi graphic element stop me from really get into the film and the end result be a film that felt like an extremely overlong cut scene from a video game . i think this problem with relate to the character isn not just because theyre not real and anime and fleischer brother cartoon have give u numerous character that we have be able to relate to strongly . i find the original fist of the north incredibly move when i first saw it . same with princess mononoke and the original transformer moviethe problem be that beowulf 3 d creation more resemble video game character then actual animate character . my 3 d animation teacher tell me never to copy directly from real life a the actual animation end up look dead . the key to a great animator be know the best way to over emphasize . in beowulf they use a special software that enable them to capture the actor performances pretty much exactly but in the conversion to 3 d animation they have for the most part come out dead . the only two actor who escape this be john malkovich and angelina jolie . these actor quirk be so strong that vestige of their humanity still manage to come across in there on screen avatar or character . i never think theyre would be a way of stop ray winstone ( star of so many great film such a lady and gentleman the amazing stain and scum and nil by mouth and sexy beast ) or brendan gleeson from give magnetic performance but robert zemekis find a way . poor robin wright penn fair the bad in this process . such a great subtle actor and her performance be totally lose in the translation to 3d . which lead me to the finale of beowulf . in the end beowulf must confront and single handedly destroy the dragon . in the course of this he be throw about and shot at with arrow and rid the dragon and nearly fall to his death . we will in a live action film this would be completely rivet . the 1980 movie dragonslayer prove how incredible dragon could be in movie . that whole film be base on what an incredibly frighten sight they be . but unfortunately since you know that you do not have control over the video game look and that all the thing you be see be be control by artist via a computer program there no reason to become to involve in what happen on screen . the enjoyable thing about beowulf be all technical . see how detailed computer graphic have become and the new visual fluidity a camera be allow in a 3 d environment . how realistic water and fire effect can be render . the first 14mins ( about the length of a he man cartoon ) be the best . the close ups of object be great too and such a a shot of pebble on the beach just before a horse come crash over the camera and scatter them . the bad shot be the wide shot a they show just how cheap and fake 3d can be . one particular shot of beowulf run on one side of a chasm with his troop on the other firing arrow at the dragon look like a bad d and d video game . what make this sad rather then just a novelty be that robert zemeckis use to be such a great director and one of the thing he be best with be memorable character . remember how many great character there be in the back to the future series . marty mcfly and biff and doc brown . all great . do you remember forrest gump . for all the anti american sentiment of it in australia i know plenty of people who find it incredibly emotionally move and a large part of that be director and the actor attention to performance . it tell that the most emotional shot in the whole film be a wide shot of forrest tell his wife that despite his mental handicap he do understand love . but in his last two outing something have go terribly wrong . the technology have take over the film . the vital human element have be lose under a plethora of pixel . i can not think of anything about the polar express that would make me want to see it in the form it be or even show it to my young relative ( those who be of the age to appreciate that sort of film ) . same with beowulf . nothing about the technical approach add to the film . if i have really get to see the real ray winstone play beowulf then maybe the small plot would have be less of a concern because i could have relate to him . what so baffle be that there already exist a successful formula for make ancient story into great cinematic entertainment . it call jim henson storyteller and 90mins of that fly by .