Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Beowulf (2007)

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » Film Handlers' Movie Reviews » Beowulf (2007) (Page 3)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3

Author

Topic: Beowulf (2007)

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 12-07-2007 10:12 PM

Ka-ching! And no flicker no matter if a 24p camera is used or not (on digital presentations a least).

| IP: Logged

Christopher Howland
Film Handler

Posts: 9
From: Mashpee, MA, USA
Registered: Jul 2007

posted 01-02-2008 04:59 PM

Take a look at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's graphics for the PC, not on consoles. I was playing it today, and i think that the graphics for COD are better than Beowulf.

Also, i heard somewhere that the Steam graphics for Half-life 2, and the recent revamp for Episode 2, has over 120 bones/muscle values in the character faces to depict emotion, and i think it works very well.

Take a look at some screenshots for the PC version of Call of Duty 4, i think it will surprise a few people here who havent seen the latest pc games have to offer, especially considering how pcs render these graphics in real-time versus months for CG movies.

I remember one of the movies that i was watching, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and i could have sworn the CGI was better in that movie than in Beowulf. Has anyone seen both these movies to compare? I've only seen clips of Beowulf, but i have seen the entire Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie

| IP: Logged

Paul Burt
Film Handler

Posts: 46
From: San Francisco, CA, United States
Registered: Apr 2006

posted 01-07-2008 12:20 PM

Well, alright, I have to say that this was WAY better than I expected, what with all the negative reviews and reports. Especially in 3D. Yes, the motion capture system still has its flaws, but compared to the creepy Polar Express this was a vast improvement. The story is what it is. Character development was less of an issue in the Middle Ages, I guess. The general look and feel of the film was as good as I could have imagined, considering all had to be developed from scratch. Lots of nifty camera angles, and the fight with Grendel was a hoot. Given the mythologic context, I thought the sequence in Beowulf's later years was just right. And although there wasn't much screen time, the enhanced Angelina Jolie was definitely a treat.

| IP: Logged

Kyle Anderson
Film Handler

Posts: 86
From: Tyler, TX, USA
Registered: Dec 2005

posted 01-07-2008 01:02 PM

quote: Christopher Howland
I remember one of the movies that i was watching, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and i could have sworn the CGI was better in that movie than in Beowulf. Has anyone seen both these movies to compare? I've only seen clips of Beowulf, but i have seen the entire Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie

Final Fantasy looked *cooler*, but not more realistic (it looked like a pricey version of Starcraft cinematics).

Remember that Beowulf's CG is not about looking good (that's not the primary goal) - the goal is to put actual actor's performances directly into a CGI film, and Beowulf succeeds at that goal. Looking good is a secondary goal that's further down the line.

In other words, while computer games deliberately stay away from the uncanny valley (this is why they "look better"), Beowulf is trying to avoid it altogether by using actual actors.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 01-07-2008 06:33 PM

quote: Christopher Howland
Take a look at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's graphics for the PC, not on consoles. I was playing it today, and i think that the graphics for COD are better than Beowulf.

You would not make that claim if you closely looked at the imagery in Beowulf (or most any other CGI driven movie) objectively.

Movie CGI has the luxury of rendering models and textures with much greater levels of detail and lighting refinement than any computer game can manage. Modern computer games like Call of Duty or Crysis do look very impressive, but their imagery is still crude or abstracted shorthand compared to good quality movie CGI. Crysis has drawn a lot of criticism for its graphics being far too demanding of current computer hardware.

A lot of the same software is used in both game development and movie CGI. Some of the same people have worked in both industries. Even with those common traits, it's still necessary to use farms of computers to render the CGI in a new movie. Often those rendering jobs are farmed out to numerous firms because of time constraints.

quote: Christopher Howland
I remember one of the movies that i was watching, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and i could have sworn the CGI was better in that movie than in Beowulf. Has anyone seen both these movies to compare?

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had a lot great style in its visuals. But that's a subjective judgment. Having seen both, I think Beowulf looked more realistic. Final Fantasy was released in 2001. A lot of technology has improved since then and Beowulf has certainly drawn some benefit from that. Both films suffered from their human characters not looking alive enough. The problem affected the Final Fantasy movie pretty badly. Beowulf at least showed the technology is improving.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.