One Hardcore Film That Was Unnecessarily Converted to CG...

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2008)

To say that it was a ridiculous decision to make Beowulf into a motion-capture CG film is an understatement. With the technology we have today, this could've made for a grand live-action feature, and I bet it would've had Robert Zemeckis not been involved. The mere notion that this wasn't gonna be live-action turned me off from seeing it in theaters, and had a friend not brought the DVD over, I would've never seen this film. However, after viewing it, I actually appreciated it more, but that's not to say it isn't without its flaws.
The CG is very good. From a long distance, the characters look like Shrek -- not a good thing. However, when at a close distance of a few feet, the characters are astonishingly life-like. The dragon was a great beast, and so was Grendel's mother. Yet the horses were poorly done, and some of the fight sequences were less than spectacular.
To those concerned about how violent or extreme this film is, it's perhaps best to say: this is the most hardcore PG-13 film made of the decade. There's quite a bit of nudity and vulgarities (mainly the inappropriate actions of Hrothgar's people and Beowulf's soldiers). The violence is way over board. Our title hero is slicing open sea monsters and their intestines and blood fly all over the place. Grendel's arm is ripped from its socket, and people are squeezed of their blood as Grendel drains them into his mouth. Way too much for a young audience, in fact, I highly recommend only children of 14-years or older watch this film.
The screenplay is actually quite well done. The gaps in text are nicely spruced up for the film, and the themes of "lies coming back to haunt you" and "the rising power of Christianity" are realized, even if the latter is very subtle.
Alan Silvestri's score is a disappointment. It only sweeps a few times, and the vocals by Robin Wright Penn aren't very flattering. There's a few themes throughout, primarily Beowulf's bombastic one, the Hero Comes Home, and the twinkling of Grendel and his mother.
Ray Winstone is very good as the title character, and so is Anthony Hopkins, and Brendan Gleeson. John Malkovich is god awful in his role, and says his lines as if he were a 1st-grader reading in front of the class: very slow and dull.
All in all, I was quite pleased to see Beowulf on DVD. As hardcore as it was in vision, the story as a whole is beautiful. The writers captured what needed to be told, and what could stay in the poem. From the acting to the CGI, it's pretty satisfying, and I recommend it to the fans of 300 and Troy.
** SEEING THIS FILM DOES NOT JUSTIFY NOT READING THE POEM FOR SCHOOL.