Note: This review is from 2008. I hope itâs better now.
I forget which one of us came up with the phrase, âThe Worst Best Western in the West.â The sink leaked, the hotel was on default air conditioning (even though it was ~50°F and raining outside), the heater was a loud, grinding thing that sounded like a truck engine, the bedspread had cigarette burns in it, the towels felt like sandpaper, and the wifi wouldnât accept the password the front desk gave us (which is probably just as well, since there were 4 access points broadcasting the same SSID, so for all I know one of them couldâve been a rogue). And the staff was taciturn at best. All this for the same price as the Cavalier.
Calling it a resort is pushing itâitâs really just a very nice motelâbut we had absolutely no complaints. The service was friendly, the bed was comfortable, everything was clean and worked (including the free wifi). Itâs right on the coast, with a wide lawn atop a bluff where you can sit and watch the waves come in. At night they light up firepits, and you can sit, keep warm, and listen to the ocean. Even the standard room had a well-stocked mini-bar. Weâve been talking about going back to Hearst Castle to catch the tours we missed, and weâll probably stay here again. (Update 2009: We did!)
A rather disjointed tale of revenge with two main segments: one with Dracula, the other with the Wolfman. The Frankenstein Monster was in there too, mostly being thawed out during the second half, and finally broke free of his straps at the very end, when he strangled one person and wandered outside and fell in some quicksand. Yes, that was all he did.
5 stars for concept, but only 2 for execution. The Wizard of Oz meets The Dark Crystal by way of 1930s scifi was fascinating as a concept, but they managed to make it dull and tedious. The only reason I watched through to the end was it was Friday night, and I was tired enough that knew I wasnât going to be doing anything useful with the time anyway, and I knew I could sleep in the next morning.
The computer animation managed to avoid the uncanny valley most of the time. The previews at Comic-Con looked very strange, but either the presentation helped immensely, or theyâve been refining it since they put those clips together. Movements are dead-on (itâs all motion-capture) and even facial expressions have gotten really impressive. (Thereâs a sequence at the end which is entirely two characters looking at each other, and itâs all expressions). And when it did slip into characters not quite looking human, the story was usually engaging enough to keep it from being too distracting.
They clearly had a 3D presentation in mind when blocking out shots, because they took great delight in tossing spears, arrows, and the occasional hapless Dane at the audience.
I found myself comparing it to Lord of the Rings in a few places, which isnât surprising, since Tolkien was quite familiar with Beowulf. Iâm pretty sure the Denmark of this period is the source culture for the Rohirrim, as well (both in the books and in the Peter Jackson films), so itâs appropriate that Heorot gives off a vibe of Edoras gone horribly wrong.
The monsters are impressive. Grendel is about as disgusting as can be, his mother literally radiant, and the dragon is a majestic gold, looking more like raw metal than scales. The designs of Grendel and the dragon are used well to reflect the contrast between Hrothgar and Beowulf: one decadent and slimy, one still heroic even in his old age. The initial attack by Grendel gets confusing pretty quickly, and the later confrontation devolves a bit into virtual wire-fu, but the battle with the dragon is suitably sweeping (though I had a few problems with the dragonâs heart).
I liked that they used Old English in a few places (Grendelâs dialog, and later, the play in which actors recount the tale of Beowulfâs encounter with Grendel), though Iâm not familiar enough with the original to know whether they kept lines verbatim.
Someone at the theater had made a whole bunch of these cardboard shields and set them along the hallway to the IMAX theater.
I did finally see 300 last month. I liked Beowulf better. I think the main thing is that 300 was positioned as a historical epic, so when it went over the top (âThis is SPARTAAAAA!!!â) it seemed really over the top, while Beowulf is set in the epic fantasy mode: monsters, giant sea serpents, demons, dragons, etc., and the movie is in part about the nature of heroic tales and how they get embellished over time. So when the hero splits a sea serpentâs neck all the way down with his sword while falling, or boasts that âI am BEOWULF!!!â it fits.
