A Hybrid of Live Action And Animation. But Is It For You?

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2008)

A $150 million budget. A realistic Healthow voiced by Robin Wright Penn. An even more realistic Hrothgar voiced by Anthony Hopkins (BOBBY). John Malkovich (BURN AFTER READING) as Unferth. Ray Winstone (THE DEPARTED) as the dominating Beowulf. And the sexiest woman alive, Angelina Jolie (WANTED) as Grendel's deceptive mother. I mean, what a cast! This is what great films are made of. And the realism of the computer animation in terms of how they resembled the actual actors was astonishing ...which begged a pretty big question: WHY NOT SIMPLY FILM BEOWULF WITH LIVE ACTION AND NOT ANIMATION?! Cost was probably an issue, but with the $150 million budget I think they could've done a fine live action film. In 2005 Icelandic director Sturla Gunnarson proved it could be done with his very nicely done BEOWULF & GRENDEL starring Gerard Butler (300). With comparable run times (103 minutes to 114 minutes) and Beowulf & Grendel's much lower budget (I believe it was around $75 million), it can be done and done well if you have the inclination. But, for whatever reason, director Robert Zemeckis (MONSTER HOUSE) decided to shoot it this way.
It may sound as if I'm bashing animated films in general, which I'm not. There are some really great ones out there (FINDING NEMO, HOODWINKED, etc.), so animation can be pulled off if care is taken to present it as such. But with Beowulf, it seems they were trying to mix live action with animation in order to produce some sort of hybrid ...which simply didn't work for me. It might for some and that's fine, but, if you're going to show realistic characters that look like the actual actors, why not simply do live action? It's so maddening! It was nice, however, to see some care taken with the source material (namely Neil Gaiman's reimagining of the epic poem by the same name). Beowulf had some shady dealings and it was refreshing to see this brought out in the story and not simply showing him as some flawless hero.
Still, if you're into animation, this one might not work for you. Or if you're solely a live action fan, this one might REALLY bug you. So beware. You've been warned.