Poor version of an epic story

Rating: 2/10 (10 February 2008)

I have seen and heard (radio dramas) many versions of this story. I even was the TD and sound engineer on a NPR release of Grendel. I have great respect for Neil Gaiman and yet, this is by far the worst retelling of this saga. Maybe Neil's writing was butchered by the editing of the production, but the beauty of the prose was absent. The drama between Beowulf and Unferth was lacking. The ending seemed to be just an afterthought.
Now the animation, an attempt at photorealism, was pathetic in its artistry. Why spend so much time, effort, and money to have Angelina's character look exactly like Angelina? What is the point? What is the intention? All this work and the character animation still look like stiff automatons with only brief moments of brilliance. The lighting and color palette are right out of any of a dozen cheap video games.
Again, why?