You can talk about Ray Harryhausen and how Beowulf is a nod to the master special effects artist. But when I saw Beowulf at a 3-D IMAX last night, all I could think about was how the movie was influenced by video games. This may herald a sea change in the movie industry when it comes to making action scenes in epic, animated movies. For in Beowulf’s action sequences, I saw everything from the monster battles in Sony’s God of War to the infected townspeople in Resident Evil 4 (Grendel looks like a skinless video game zombie in the movie).
Now, you can say that I play too many video games and that movie special effects are influenced by other movies, not games. But I don’t see it that way. Sure, the scenes in God of War aren’t as graphically detailed as in Beowulf. But the guys that make the effects: I’d be quite surprised if they aren’t playing games and becoming influenced by games. Now let me say this about the video game, which I don’t have in the house yet. Since I’ve seen the movie in 3-D IMAX, I don’t know if I can even play the game. The experience was so gigantic in the theater with the 3-D dragon and Grendel, Ubisoft’ll really have to add some new story lines and levels that include plot beyond the movie for me to get really enthused. Such is the conundrum when movie technology, however inspired by game technology, trumps what can be done in a video game.
Beowulf Movie
Ubisoft