Beowulf Review: "A Singular Work Of Art"

IGN:

Robert Zemeckis' new film Beowulf offers a powerful reminder of how far we've come, and perhaps have yet to go, in the ever-expanding world of special effects. It's a majestic film, absolutely breathtaking to behold, and yet so many people will complain (and in fact already have) because they think the characters' eyes are dead or the rhythms of their movement aren't realistic enough. CGI was in its infancy 20 years ago, and we are now capable of rendering virtually anything on film; meanwhile audiences are so familiar with the process that they are steadily less impressed the more sophisticated these creatures, characters and landscapes become. How cynical have we become that we no longer appreciate works of art, instead search desperately for their flaws?

All of which is why Beowulf is not merely a very good film, but an important one. Not necessarily important in some specific cultural sense, or even perhaps within the timeline of cinema history; but Zemeckis has effectively combined the oldest storytelling form in the English language with the most up-to-date technology possible, in the process creating a singular work of art that reminds us timelessness and modernity are opposite sides of the exact same coin, at least where movies are concerned.

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Comments

[JFCooper]

"How cynical have we become that we no longer appreciate works of art, instead search desperately for their flaws?"

Seems fair to me to be critical of a process that seeks to replace human beings with animations when the animations are less lifelike and less lively than humans.
One more thought: Art is a big subject, and flaws in many types of art have been criticized for hundreds of years. For example, Van Gogh was not a particularly popular painter; Cubism and Dadaism still have vehement detractors 90 years after their inceptions. But if other visual arts have gotten less criticism than CGI film, it's precisely because CGI replaces humanity instead of celebrating it.

[Mrrar]

Is there a reason that Huffington Post is basically posting EVERY FRICKING ARTICLE ABOUT BEOWULF?

Seriously, this is the only movie you've done this for.

Please friggin _stop_.

I get it, Angelina Jolie has breasts and technology is good/bad/destroying civilizati­on/brillia­ntly artistic/whatever the hell you want to say it is.

stop!

::pant::