Stocking shredder....read below for details

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2007)

To say that I was keen to see this movie is an understatement. I had to take a bus, subway, commuter train, cross the border to Hong Kong, take the KCR, the MTR then finally a shuttle bus just to see this movie in IMAX+3D+ English.
So was it worth it? Well I can say this movie was so exciting that my friend went in with perfect stocking and by the end of the movie they were full of holes (and I am a perfect gentleman, so it was the excitement of the movie and not me that did it).
Beowulf is an old English poem (which is in fact a Germanic language) and often talked about but few people have read it (those that have generally don't seem to like this movie, but...given the sort of people that read only English poetry this is not surprising).
Anyway, Beowulf (which I believe means Bear Wolf) must first kill a monster named Grendle, and having done that must also kill it's mother. This second element makes Beowulf stand out in heroic epics and provides the meat for the re adaption of this story.
This movie is based on the poem and the legend, it both tries to add realism and humanity to the characters as well as confront the nature of heroism.
What do we end up with is this.
1. A well made and interesting story that works both as a classic tale and modern (or post modern) epic. 2. A combination of amazing animation for the faces and really terrible animation for the movement (seriously it is like watching the original supermario brothers act). 3. The best dragon ever...personally I have never been satisfied by the dragons in movies, but finally I have found one that I like. 4. A movie that is made for 3-D, I don't think the 3D is worth it, but I doubt that the movie would stand up to a 2D viewing. Plus 3D is fun, especially when it looks like monster saliva is going to land on your lap.
My final comment is this, it is an exciting modern tale based on, but updating a classic tale.