Didn't Like it

Rating: 5/10 (19 January 2009)

I am a big fan of the epic film genre, but from the start this one just didn't get me into it.
First for the life of me I cannot understand why every film has to completely change the plot of these epic poems/stories that have been around for ages. I do not care how some writer interprets the story, I want to know the story of Beowulf the way that it is written. The story is a compelling one of one of the greatest warriors that the world has ever seen, why change it? Adding details here and there to bring the actual man to life rather than just the hero are understandable, but the story is completely changed from the three actual fights that Beowulf had into one long battle in this rendition.
Next the CGI or whatever they used to actually make the movie just didn't work for me. I have played numerous video games that actually have better looking and more realistic characters than this. Now I realize that realism may not be the look that they were going for, but to me this turned out more like Shrek than the epic that it was supposed to be.
Although I complained about the change of the storyline, I can live with it if it works. But for me the plot just sort of jumps all over the place. Everything is flowing quite nicely and then suddenly it is way in the future and then five minutes later the plot jumps out of control again with another major plot point that is not explained and not shown. The film just never really finds its pace and it is too jumpy for me.
Other than the flaws above, the voice acting is pretty good. One thing I like is that they are not constantly trying to hit a home run with every line that is delivered like some other films in the genre (300). I can't say that I particularly liked any of the characters, and that is probably because none of them are developed in any way shape of form. Unferth for instance, suddenly out of nowhere changes his stance on Beowulf without the audience really seeing why this happens.
To me the story of Beowulf deserves a great film, and this just did not do the story justice, not by a long shot.