graph-o-mat 1.0

While yesterday (May 7th) was full of events at fmx/08 in Stuttgart, to me, the absolute highlight was the screening of “Beowulf” (2007) by Robert Zemeckis in the evening. (We saw the original English version without subtitles.) Afterwards, on my way to the S-Bahn (the local train), I was completely overwhelmed by what I had just seen, and it became very apparent to me that “Beowulf” represents a watershed, not only for animated film, but for film in general. This may sound a bit far-fetched, but I have a number of arguments to prove my point.

First, the 3D effect, which is something really new (ok, this was my first 3D movie, but anyway). During the beginning of the movie, I experimented and took my glasses off shortly, but 3D is really so much different that I guess in the future, 2D cinema as we know it now will probably become something comparable to what silent movies are nowadays. What slightly irritated me at first (but I got used to it as the story moved along) was the lack of depth-of-field, which made the characters a bit unreal: they appeared somewhat too sharp, almost cut out, against the background. But this was merely at the beginning, while I tried to adapt to this new experience.

One thing that really blew me away was the realistic rendering of the characters, and even if it was still visible that they were CGI, the texturing of the skin was amazingly realistic. Another thing was the richness of the textures in general: the fabrics of the clothes, the furnishing of the interiors, the landscape, etc.. Especially there, I see possibilities that are completely out of reach for “conventional” film (even with visual fx); the control one has over virtually any visual detail is simply amazing.

What also added to my admiring this movie was the story itself, with its theme of ancient kings, Beowulf himself as the hero, swordfights, dragons, etc.—and again: due to the fact that the movie was all-CGI, virtually anything was possible. One really has to go and see this movie to fully grasp what this actually means.

I could go on and on, but I realize that it is simply impossible to put my experience into words, so all I can say, is: If you have the oportunity, go and see for yourselves.