Tina Arena wrote this song not for someone, but for something; her music. Most of the time, I feel the same way with my art. Granted mine have been called by the so-called “art-world” the lowest form of art, its still art. And its mine. Sometimes I would think if all this aggravation, frustration, and misery is worth it.
When I was in junior high, we were given the task of writing a book report on the story of Beowulf. Not that that moment began my love for fantasy stories (I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was 8), it did add to the fuel to my love for storytelling.
Being a fan of Neil Gaiman’s written works (Sandman, Death: The High Cost of Living, Mirrormask, Stardust), I wanted to see what treatment he made to this classic Anglo-Saxon lore.
I watched it on digital 3D last night, and there’s not much Gaiman changed to the original core plot. Some elements of the movie deviated from the original, which all came together in the end of the movie. They [Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary] did, in the beginning of the film, established how Beowulf will be portrayed. To me, it set the whole predicament of the movie, and I wasn’t really surprised at the end of it.
As a gamer, the CGI movie would sometimes take me for a loop. I kept looking at my hands seeing if I had my game console gamepad with me. I felt at times like I was playing a Final Fantasy game.
But overall, the movie was good. The story was treated fairly in my opinion, albeit if one reason for it being all CGI was to convince the public that there has been great advances since Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, I didn’t see it yet.
Watch it. Enjoy it. Don’t expect it to be anything but a fantasy movie.
This sketch and many others are just some of the ideas I’m bouncing off with my dear friend and muse Kedralynn. I hope to see this and other ideas into completion soon.