Tedious

Rating: 3/10 (26 October 2012)

Anyone who sets out to write fantasy (and that is what Beowulf is) should find a copy of Ursula LeGuin's essay from "Elfland to Poughkeepsie". One of the points she makes is that characters in such tales should NOT speak like contemporary Americans--they should not use slang or phrases that will distract the gentle reader (or viewer) from the fantasy universe.
Lots and lots of bad written fantasy suffers from reading like an adventure lived by American teenagers in costume; the really foul stuff even uses contemporary slang. Some of it sells quite well to an unsophisticated readership.
Watching Beowulf was misery, because it was full of Americans delivering their lines like Americans in costume. I just could not believe these were Nordic guys living the Northern Thing, with dragons and swords. Most of the characters were completely unconvincing, as were their wigs.
The dragon...o dear gawd...reminded me of the dragon Ollie from Kukla, Fran & Ollie.
I stuck it out to the end, but it was painful. Much of it looked like it had filmed the first time the actors tried out their lines, and that they had not yet rehearsed together.
It takes more than action scenes and CGI to make a movie worthwhile.