Beowulf (2007)

Once I got over this not being an adaptation of the classic poem, but rather an imagined “real” story that would inspire the classic bit of lit, enjoying this film became much easier. Otherwise, it was pretty much what you'd expect it to be: an ultra-macho guy fantasy tale of larger than life heroes and the demons that torment them. Hey, it worked for 300. What sets it apart are it's literary origins, and that it's an animated CG film. While it maintains a loose grip on it's source, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery's script does a decent job of presenting a well fleshed out version of the tale. It has all the major plot points, characters, and items in one form or another. As to the animation and acting, it's a mixed bag. Trying to maintain a high level of realistic visual fidelity lands the entire movie deep in the uncanny valley, where things look close enough to real to feel distractingly fake. It's a step forward for the film making style, but still very far from perfect. The actors all did motion-capture to give their performances nuance and detail, but as good as Anthony Hopkins' Hrothgar, Ray Winstone's Beowulf, and especially the very nude Angelina Jolie look in the film, some characters just look wrong, most notably Robin Wright Penn's Queen Wealthow. Meanwhile the action and sets all look great, particularly the massive finale, which might be the best action scene of the year. The end result of all this is a film that's difficult to define, but extremely interesting to look at. It's not the poem it's based on, and the animation is both disturbing and beautiful at the same time, but as a whole there's enough good here to warrant the price of admission.

7 out of 10.

Note: If you can catch the film in 3D, do so. While it contains more than a few instances of obvious 3D silliness (swords and arrows flying at the audience, foreground fire and snow, etc), the film's finale is made all the more spectacular by seeing the action swoop all around the audience.