Cinema Science

The LA Times got a first look at Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf. The film uses the same motion capture technology that Zemeckis used in The Polar Express. A lot of people complained that the characters in that looked like zombies, I never noticed, I think I was too distracted by the 3D quality in IMAX. This, of course, is a much more adult tale and the technology is supposed to have improved. There is no way to really be for certain until you actually see the characters in motion but one section from the story did make me a bit nervous.

His knack for a good scrap is on show in one of the film's pivotal fight scenes when Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude, mano a beast-o. ("Bob asked if he had to be nude, but we said, 'It's in the poem,' " Gaiman explained.) So in a crafty bit of staging to allow a PG-13 rating, Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the foreground. It's more subtle and subdued, but shadows, swords, mead flagons and shoulders block all in a sequence not unlike the prankish cloaking device used in "Austin Powers" films.

Here are the images from the story.