Hutchinson- I AM BEOWULF

It is hard to pinpoint just one scene in Beowulf that needs to be reedited, because I personally find the entire movie a giant cinematic failure. That being said, the scene, or sequence of scenes, that seem to need more editing and enhancing are the fight scenes between Beowulf and the dragon. In particular, the scene where Beowulf is dangling perilously from the dragon’s back begs further examination and enhancement. It would appear that the animators were so concerned with getting the dragon realistic and lifelike, that they completely forgot about the surrounding images in the scene. Beowulf, though small, and therefore more difficult to portray realistically, still looks like a limp, outdated Sims character. The smoke from the fire, while creating the ominous feeling of increasing danger, simply covers up most of the background, thus creating less work for the animators. I understand that it takes a lot of time and money to create images digitally, but that is no excuse for slacking. The dragon completely dominates the scene, making its presence known in more ways than one. It is completely overpowering, so A+ to the animators for a job well done in that aspect, and perhaps to many, the ferocity of the dragon was enough to ignore the rest of the scene. However, my attention tended to stray to the video game-like appearance of the castle and its hero. In some ways, it looks like the dragon is superimposed onto a green-screen. While the camera angled up towards the underbelly of the dragon does aid in the fear of the moment, perhaps a different angle would have been more helpful to the animators. I just firmly believe that had the animators spent more time on the details of the background and surroundings, the movie would not have been as hopelessly tragic.