"What we need is a hero."

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2012)

Anyone remember reading 'Beowulf' in high school? That was a long time ago for me but I'm pretty sure this film was nothing like it. It took me only a little while to figure out that this was a CGI generated picture, I didn't know that going in. Too many times the human characters actually looked real, but at others, like ones from those better animated computer games. Which tells me that the technology is geometrically developing to the point where someday we'll be watching deceased actors and other entertainers performing once again through the wonders of this type of animation.
There's some pretty grotesque stuff here, not for little kids. A sword to the eyeball comes to mind, along with Beowulf ripping the heart out of a dragon. At times the picture approximated a horror film instead of action/adventure, and Grendel could have been one of those monsters in a house by the lake if you know what I mean. For me it was a little weary.
But the animation is magnificent, if not overdone most of the time. It's also probably why I didn't recognize Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich as the characters they were supposed to be, but Angelina Jolie I did. This probably appeals to the younger movie going crowd who live much more rapidly than my generation ever did. What I might do is go pick up a copy of Beowulf and see how it reads today.