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Note: There are spoilers for the poem and the movie in this review.

Over the years there have been numerous attempts to adapt the epic poem Beowulf. Many of these movies end up being pretty shitty. The lone exception being The 13th Warrior (which is an extremely loose version of the poem by Michael Crichton), but that’s for another review. Anyway, after various failed attempts at making a good, successful film, studio heads didn’t know if the Beowulf poem could actually be a profitable film. Their solution to this problem: take a script written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery that changes the poem, give it to Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) and let him turn it into a CGI animated film.

For the people that didn’t have to read the story in school, Beowulf tells the tale of a great warrior named Beowulf (Ray Winstone). After hearing tales of how a vicious monster named Grendel (Crispin Glover) is continuously crashing the parties held by an old king named King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins), Beowulf decides to lend a hand and kill Grendel. Once Grendel has been taken care of, every one assumes things are going to dandy, but this isn’t the case because they still have to deal with Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie)… who is pissed because her baby boy has bitten the dust. This is where the movie departs from the poem. In the poem, Beowulf fights and kills Grendel’s mother, becomes king and then has to fight the dragon, but in this version of the movie, Beowulf bangs Grendel’s mother, becomes king and then has to fight a dragon that ends up being his son.

Even though Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery took liberties with the story, the film doesn’t end up being that bad. Zemeckis does a fine job with the film, but can you really give him props for making a CGI animated film? The pace for the film is pretty good, but there are scenes in the movie, mostly the scenes that were shot in 3D, that are unnecessary. The voice acting for the film is solid. Winstone and the rest of the actors do a solid job voicing their respective characters. Crispin Glover has the hardest voice acting job out of all of them since most of his lines consist of him yelling or talking in Old English, but he makes it work. For the most part, the animation is solid. The film has many sequences that are simply amazing to look at.

As far as problems go, Beowulf has its fair share of them. One of these problems comes from the animation. Though there are times in the film when the animation looks solid, there are instances when the animation is inconsistent. Many of inconsistencies in the animation are in the facial rendering of the characters. If your character’s name wasn’t Beowulf or Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson) there was a very good chance that your character’s face was going to be poorly rendered. The animation alone on Unferth’s (John Malkovich) face looks horrendous. Another small problem that I have with this film is that it was shot with 3D scenes included. I’m positive they looked nice in the theater but something is lost in translation when you are watching it on TV at home. These 3D sequences just look downright silly. The film also includes a love triangle. This isn’t necessary to the plot at all. It almost feels like they had to add it just to kill some time before the dragon appeared on the screen.

When it comes down to it, this version of Beowulf isn’t terrible. The film does have its problems, but it is pretty entertaining. The changes in the story will surely upset a lot of people out there, but shouldn’t be any qualms for those that haven’t read the poem.

Final Synopsis: Even though I think the 3D scenes look silly on TV, the movie is still fine. Give it a watch, but don’t use it in any of your classes… instead use this review since I already told you what happens in the poem… though I did leave some details out. I can’t do every thing for you.

Points Lost: -1 for horribly rendered faces, -1 for a love triangle that wasn’t needed, -1 for 3D scenes that look silly on TV.

Lesson Learned: If you have sex with Angelina Jolie a dragon will come out of her cooter.

Burning Question: Do you think Wiglaf did Grendel’s mother too?

Beowulf (2007)
7/10

Tags: 2007, action, adventure, angelina jolie, anthony hopkins, brendan gleeson, cartoon, CGI, crispin glover, fantasy, john malkovich, latest movie reviews, Ray Winstone, recent3, robert zemeckis