Beowulf - Slaying the Dragon - Spoilers
Incredibly under-rated film. I personally didn’t pay much attention to it when it first came out, I wasn’t a great big fan of motion capture for the sake of it. Even Avatar has real sets and real actors. I only realised how good it was when I got round to viewing it a couple of years ago. I didn’t expect to like it at all. However, when you watch it, you realise that this is a really great piece of cinema, capturing everything magical about the poem that inspired it. Filled with Norse mythology, I would recommend this to anyone who has a penchant for Skyrim or Lord of the Rings; this is the kind of material that has inspired that fantasy genre.
The soundtrack in particular is amazing. The main theme really hits home, you can hear it crop up all over the place, and is perfect for the setting. It is a strange mix of electronic noises and traditional orchestral overtures. A bit like the work Daft Punk made for Tron Legacy.
However, the scene above is really worth a watch. Spoilers, yes, but so damn cool. I think you will be able to recognise the bit I’m talking about, but in case you don’t it’s around 1:05 onwards. If I could change anything I would have liked to have seen it filmed traditionally. If it had the art department of the Lord of the Rings films, this could have been an instant hit, the ultimate Beowulf adaption.
