Give it a miss

Rating: 5/10 (16 June 2008)

he much hyped animated Hollywood movie Beowulf actually disappoints me. The movie is about a hero called Beowulf who slays a monster and becomes a King. Nothing unusual about it. But there is a bit of something unusual in it. The hero is actually not a great one. He lies about his accomplishments and adds spice to his stories on slaying demons and sea monsters. He actually lost a race to another warrior because he got distracted by a mermaid after killing a sea monster. But he hides the mermaid part to the world and boasts that he killed the sea monster. This has made his name reach far ends of the world. One particular kingdom is troubled by a monster called Grendal who is an offspring of the King and a Demon (Angelina Jolie). The king Hrothgar (Antony Hopkins) is so taken by the beauty of the Demon that he makes it out with her and falls for a curse called "Sins of the Fathers". The queen refuses to sleep with him because of this. Grendal is disturbed by party music in the kingdom and actually crashes (gory violence) the party and the party guests. So the King is troubled that he can neither have anymore parties nor lay his queen. Here comes our Beowulf to the rescue and he manages to kill Grendal by crushing its Cochlea with his bare hands and ripping of one of the monster's arms. And thus the Curse is broken.
Angered by the death of her handsome Grendal, Grendal's mother takes on Beowulf's men and kills them. Reciprocating this, Beowulf seeks out to kill her but commits the "Sins of the Fathers" . But he tells everyone that he has killed her and he becomes the king and gets to lay the former King's queen and a few other women in the regime. (Actually don't understand why he shouts "I Am Beowulf" before and after killing demons.) Without his knowledge, Angelina gives birth to his son and this time its a Dragon. After a few years, the curse is set loose and the Dragon starts killing a few people in the kingdom.
Our Man sets out again and after a series of CG gimmicks manages to slay the dragon and dies along with it. His heroism is sung and his body cremated. His minister eyes Grendal's mother and probably commits "Sins of the Fathers". I guess that's left to the producers of Beowulf part 2, if there is any The graphic gimmicks and sound effects are awesome. It really sensuous to watch Angelina emerge out of the waters in near-nude swimming suit. Interesting to watch a Hero who has a weak heart for women and lies about his courage. Probably he is a practical cool hero, for a change. But for otherwise the movie is a sheer waste of time. Being a great fan of both fairy tales and animation movies, I was lured to watch it. But every aspect of the movie disappointed me. It turned out to be a mega-animated-gory-tale.
Give it a miss