beowulf
07/27/2007
Beowulf
Zowie. Robert Zemekis follows up his motion-capture family extravaganza The Polar Express with the motion-capture fantasy spectacular Beowulf. The fact that those two projects are bookended by the basically-one-man-show Cast Away and the planned motion-capture remake of A Christmas Carol start to make you think maybe Zemekis just doesn't like working with live actors all that much. But this project looks mighty damn cool.
With the increasing dominance of CGI in the fantasy film genre, it's amazing no one's really run with this concept before. Mo-capping the actors gives them the same visual texture and intensity as the backgrounds and effects, making the whole world blend together seamlessly. It's really pretty gorgeous.
And to those who say mo-capped actors look plastic and creepy, I say puh-leeze. Like Angelina Jolie didn't already look like a goddess crafted from Sculpey anyway.
