The Old English epic in motion-capture CGI form.

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2016)

I try to steer clear of motion-capture CGI that attempts to border on realism: I either want my films to be live-action footage or clearly animated. I find the awkward middle ground just a little unsettling. That said, with such a cracking tale (the original poem is a thousand years old—stories don't endure for that long if they're crap), superior acting from a solid cast, and masterful storytelling by director Robert Zemeckis, I'm willing to make an exception in this case.
Zemeckis's film does deviate from the original story a tad, which might upset the literature purists, but since the average cinema-goer probably has as much in-depth knowledge of the Beowulf legend as I have of the inner workings of the Hadron Collider, I can allow a little artistic license. With such an epic narrative, enjoyable action scenes, cool monsters, a naked digital Angelina Jolie, and a CG rendering of the main character's ass for those who like that sort of thing (thankfully Beowulf looks nothing like Ray Winstone), there surely is something for everyone.