Jonas G: Beowulf scene

A critical moment in the film Beowulf that should be reevaluated is the charming scene of the hero, Beowulf, played by Grendel’s mother played by Angelina Jolie. The lighting is low key, warm and gilded, setting the mood for the seduction. Jolie’s character rises out of the water and her body is covered in a golden sheen. In this highly sexualized moment, the film is trying to move beyond the conventions of animation by depicting such imagery, but because of the half-human, half-animated look to the characters, the result for the viewer is a confusing amalgamation. The animators are unable to depict sex appeal and seduction in a successful way because they are neither respecting the boundaries of animation or typical, human acting films. Are viewers comfortable feeling attraction toward what is half cartoon? The viewer is constantly torn by the appearance of a human face and a digital animated face. The result is irritating and needlessly distracting.  This deformed appearance is especially trying during this lustful, sensual scene.  Jolie over sexualizes every word, so the scene is oversaturated in sexual energy which could be the film makers’ attempt to compensate for the lack of human appearance. Grendel’s mother fondles Beowulf’s glowing blue sword and it crumbles, symbolizing his fading conviction to destroy her. This super phallic moment is a failed attempt to enrich the scene with sexual undertones because it is so very overt.

Himmelberg- Beowulf Scene

First off, I would like to say that the movie in general was very straining for me to watch because the type of animation that was used in this movie bothers me. I understand the reasons why they have started to use it, but I think that animated movies should be animated and movies with real actors should be movies with real actors. When they started combining the two I think it took away from the movies themselves. The film community is trying to make animated movies that adults will like to watch and are more adult appropriate, but movies like Shrek ,(which was animated in the old fashion) was appealing to many adults because the jokes were geared towards adults. Beowulf is an old epic story, not a comedy or romance solely and for people to truly have its meaning resonate with them it needs to be filmed with real humans, like in Beowulf and Grendel. Since it was done in this half animation/ half real humans I found it hard to sit through and not entertaining. I didn't even really care to pay attention to the story, which I think is the most important part of Beowulf.

The scene that I picked to change was the scene where Beowulf goes into the cave to see Grendel's mother. I think it need works because it is simply catering towards angelina jolie and her "sexiness". I know that Grendel's mother is supposed to be alluring but she bordering vulgar in this movie. There were three major things that bothered me about the scene. First that when Beowulf stepped into the cave the golden horn/goblet started glowing. This happens both times he goes into the cave and it is never explained as to why the thing glows. It doesn't add to the story or enhance the scene at all it just leaves the audience wondering why the thing is glowing, which we never find out so it is slightly frustrating. Second, Grendel's mother is surrounded by a blue light when she emerges from the water and this same blue light appears numerous times throughout the movie. Again I do not think it adds anything to the scene or the character, it simply confuses the audience because it comes into the room when Grendel is in the mead hall attacking people, it again shows up when grendel is hurt and dying and then when she shows herself to Beowulf. Is she supposed to be represented by the blue light or is it the magic? We never get an answer to that so it is simply fluff and not needed to portray her character or the magic that is going on either. The third thing is the fact that as Grendel's mother walks out of the water she is covered in what looks to be gold paint. As she continues to walk out the "gold paint" starts to disappear. This seems absurd, and is obviously the directors way of making the scene even or sexy. I think it jsut adds to the vulgarity. At least if she is covered in gold we know that she is not human, but when the gold starts to come off it gives the impression that she is part human and she is not, so it giving the audience a wrong impression of her character. I also think all of the little balls of light that are flying around can be gotten rid of because it gives the scene an air of good magical feeling when it is actually very bad and seducive. It made me think of peter pan or some kind of fairy movie, which is not the feel the scene should be having. Overall I think this is scene(and it takes alot for me to say this) should give off a more dark and eerie vibe instead of a magical fantastical one.

Mise En Scene (first picture of angelina jolie's head coming out of the water )
Dominant - Grendel's mother
Lighting - Low lighting
Camera Proxemics - intimate -

Falanga, Beowulf Mise En Scene

One particular scene in “Beowulf” which deserves some editing attentions is about an hour into the movie when Beowulf confronts Grendel’s mother for the first time; The dominant is on the golden horn when it should be on the faces of either character, the object is too bright and detracts attention from the important dialogue and confrontation going on. The lighting is very low all around the two characters while the horn creates much of the light on the bottom right of the screen which illuminates much of the two characters on screen. The character proxemics is intimate as we only see from the chest up on both the characters and their heads fill up most of the screen. The camera is about three feet away from the action going on in the scene. The angle of the camera is somewhat tilted up toward the characters’ faces, as if we are looking up to them as they are both legends in their own worlds, giving good symbolic reference to who these characters are. The color is gold for the most part as it fills the characters’ faces giving them a magical quality; while the rest on screen in the background is pitch black. There was no lens/stock/filter change in this shot as everything is very clear and not distorted in any way. The subsidiary contrast is that of Beowulf’s face because it is closest to the bright gold horn, then the mother of Grendel which is at the other end of the screen and not so lit up is the next subsidiary. The fact that neither character is as brightly lit up as the horn makes them subsidiary contrasts. The scene is not very dense because we only have two characters in close proxemics to each other while everything is in darkness. They both fill the screen making it somewhat dense but there is nothing in the background making it easy to see what is going on what to look at. The composition is interesting; the only objects we can see on screen are the two characters, whilst everything else is in darkness making it impossible not to focus in on the conversation and confrontation. The framing is very tight, Beowulf and the mother are close together in a dark cave with only one light source being the horn, and the characters seem to have nowhere to go making a good representation of how critical this plot turn is as it is made necessary through the way it is shot. There is not much depth in this scene because we are allowed only to focus on three things (Beowulf, Mother, and horn) which are all in close proxemics of each other. As far as the character placement, Beowulf is on the right holding the gold horn near the bottom right of the screen, while Grendel’s mother is on the left. The characters don’t look into the camera and only look at each other, the camera goes around the dialogue at hand but they never change positions in the stage position. The problem with the scene is that the horn should not illuminate the screen as much as it does. It draws attention away from the confrontation. The animation and people look awful in this film, mainly because the character’s faces can’t move and express that much as a normal actor could.

Villacreces: Beowulf vs Sea Monsters

The movie Beowulf (2007) by the director Robert Zemeckis uses the technique of " motion capture". This technique basically record movement and transforms it to a digital model. The reason why this technique was employed was because, Beowulf is an action movie, and the movement and actions performed by the characters in the movie are impossible to make with live actors. With this in mind, the creators of this movie were able to portray the characters such as Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel's mother, and other characters in the movie. The portrayal of the characters is ok, but the rest of the aspects of the movie have some flaws, that to not make justice these. 

For example, the scene in which Beowulf describes his battle against the Sea Monsters. In this scene the image of Beowulf is good, his physical appearance looks like the rest of the movie, but the portrayal of the water is not very good. Water shines, water has different movement and there is not an uniform movement as it is portrayed in this scene. The animatos did not give water a real appearance as they do to the monster and to Beowulf. If you do mise scene, you notice that the lighting of the scene is dull and does not focus on beowulf, the monster or the water, it is just plain and dull. The dominant of the scene is the monster and Beowulf flying towards him. The form of this scene is closed, the fact that there is monster makes the scene stylish and with details, which makes it not real and made up. Also how the movie is made with computer animation makes it closed. There is a social camera proxemix and a wide shot, you can see the monsters the character and the setting at the same time. The character proxemix is persona, because is Beowulf against the monster, its their moment before one of the makes the first move. 

In my opinion the movie does a good portrayal of the characters of the movie, because even though the movie is computer animated you still have the essence of the actors that portray each one of them. You know it is them. The rest of the aspects of the movie such as the battle seen and background are not employed well.