Blockbuster fantasy has always been very hit-or-miss, but when you throw a multi-time Academy Award-winning director into the mix and load the ensemble up to the gunnels with talented names, then there’s a distinct possibility that the end results could be spectacular, unless of course we’re talking about 2007’s Beowulf.
Robert Zemeckis’ desire to push performance capture filmmaking to the forefront and usher in a cinematic revolution was misguided to say the least, and he ultimately ended up abandoning the fad altogether following his quickfire triptych of The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol, even if Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin proved it had potential.
Adapting the legendary fable into a $150 million epic that starred Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright, Brendan Gleeson, and many more in addition sounds fascinating on paper, but it was arguably the dead-eyed uncanny valley nature of its mere existence that nuked the appeal.
Earning less than $200 million at the box office and being greeted with a shrug of indifference from both critics and crowds wasn’t ideal, but a recent Reddit thread has ensured that Beowulf gets at least a small pass. Sure, it runs for 114 minutes in total and was a flop by every definition of the world, but it’s hard to argue that Grendel’s first attack is a phenomenal scene in a sea of mediocrity.
Maybe it’s because the darkness helps offset the iffy visuals, but in terms of staging, atmosphere, and execution, we could have had a classic on our hands if any other moment from Beowulf even came close to recapturing this particular form of lightning in a bottle, or maybe if it was a straightforward live-action adaptation instead.