The legend of Beowulf

Rating: 5/10 (5 May 2014)

The Olde English poem about the Norse adventure of warrior Beowulf who battles the creature Grendel and then later his mother gets the CGI treatment from director Robert Zemeckis.
To be fair CGI would give the film a better graphic representation of the poem but the CGI actors still have that dead eye visuals.
The film is set in the time of pagan gods but Christianity is in the fringes and King Hrothgar's (Anthony Hopkins) counsellor John Malkovich is an early convert. However the life of merriment in the kingdom is disturbed when Grendel attacks and the King offers a large bounty to the person who slays him but the King seems to harbour a dark secret which is wife (Robin Wright)is suspicious of.
Beowulf (Ray Winstone)takes up the challenge and then goes into battle with his mother (a sultry CGI Angelina Jolie) and it seems the mistakes of the past are about to repeat itself.
The film is an adaptation of the poem and the visuals add an atmosphere especially the action sequences but the CGI visuals of the actors are still not right. The mixture of different acting styles looks jarring such as mixing Welsh Hopkins, Cockney Winstone and American Malkovich.
The film is also portentous and actually starts to drag once the action and slaughter is finished as the screenplay had to expand the story in order for it to be turned into a feature length film.