Beowulf Reviews

After reading the story, I have always wanted to see a movie adaptation but I haven't found the one I want to watch. After going through the list, many people seem to have given it positive reviews and I want to see this version, But I have no idea where I would find it.

In a legendary time of heroes, the mighty warrior Beowulf battles the demon Grendel and incurs the hellish wrath of the beast's ruthlessly seductive mother. Their epic clash forges the timeless legend of Beowulf.

PG-13, 1 hr. 54 min.

Action & Adventure, Animation, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: Robert Zemeckis

Written By: Neil Gaiman, Roger Avary

In Theaters: Nov 15, 2007 Wide

On DVD: Feb 13, 2007

US Box Office:$82.2M

Beowulf comes to aid the king of the danes by killing the monster Grendel with his bare hands, and Grendel's mother, who begins killing out of revenge, with a sword. The king gives Beowulf many gifts; Beowulf returns home and becomes the king of his own people. Fifty years later he has to fight against a dragon.

Personally, I was really intrigued by this flick and I was quite eager to check it out, even though it pretty much underperformed like the other motion-capture features directed by Robert Zemeckis. However, even though it was poorly received, I was actually positively surprised and I thought it was much better than ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’. Indeed, this time, I thought that the story was really cool, intriguing and it was definitely entertaining (at the time, it was the first version of this ancient tale I ever saw). Once again, the animation was very good (a big improvement on ‘The Polar Express’) and really fit the story. Still, I must admit it, the human characters still looked pretty creepy sometimes but, like I said before, the technology has been really improved when you compare it to ‘The Polar Express’. Personally, I always thought that it was pretty neat that Zemeckis was experimenting with the motion-capture (even though you could argue that 3 movies might have been a little too much) and if you should watch one of those, you should definitely pick this one. To conclude, I don’t think it was that bad at all, I actually liked the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Zemeckis’ work.

My major problem with this film wasn't the story--it's quite possibly the closest to the original tale I've seen, and the most interesting. They did a great job with showing the difference between the words the characters spoke, and what was actually being thought or said by them--a very different thing in this story.

No, the major problem with this film was that there was no reason for it to be animated. The animation still isn't fluid enough to feel real, and it distracts you and pulls you out of the film. Moreover, they use the faces of the actors anyway, so why bother animating them? You might as well spend the money (and far less time) costuming them and letting them act out the scenes. Computer animation hasn't progressed far enough to work for this sort of thing, and the story (and effects) weren't fantasical enough to warrent the whole thing being animated.

I was actually looking forward to this film. It did not look great, but it looked like a pretty good action/animation film. But the truth is, it is just not that good. The plot is a little off, it just starts off weird. And the scenes are all misplaced. The action was average. Overall, I thought this film was O.K. But kind of a wannabe "300" Film.

*IGNORE*