Excellent in parts

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 2007)

Overall superb. The screenplay and adaptation of this well known classic was superb. I watched the 2D version and was *not* disappointed in any of that side of things.
The core element is of course the animation, the CGI. Contrary to what others have said. I found the long shots (at least of countryside and buildings) more convincing than the close shots. As one reviewer commented, while the close-up shots of people are very good I was never able to forget it was CGI. They still cannot do eyes properly, and fluid effects such as water, nor volumetrics such as flames. Thankfully, for certain scenes, they *can* do fog - a fact I was extremely grateful for when Beowulf decided to strip off.
There were some unnecessary errors in the CGI which really ought to have been caught before final rendering.
Examples: Grendel's mother was supposed to be a naked water devil in human form - yet whoever did the CGI forgot to omit the *high heels* Angelina Jolie was presumably wearing for the test shots. Secondly the scene where Beowulf was crowned. Who made the schoolboy howler that the crown was wider than his ears but still somehow stayed on??
Then there were the accents. Oh dear the accents. Why oh why do modern directors not care about accents?? Hrothgar was not born in West Wales (Sir Anthony should know better) nor was Beowulf born within the sound of Bow Bells.
I must disagree though with the reviewer who said Angelina Jolie was poor in this respect. At one point I caught an *American* accent from Robin Wright Penn, yet Angelina Jolie did at least try and IMHO succeeded, in giving her character an appropriate accent. Be honest, do we know how a water demon would speak? No of course not, so Jolie made the accent for us, and IMHO did an extremely good job.
Conversely, do we know the accent humans spoke in that region? Yes, we do. Although we cannot know precisely we *can* say it is likely to be close to the accent today. The actors portraying humans dropped the ball far more heavily than Angelina Jolie IMHO.
John Malkovich. I had problems. Possibly because I watched him in Johnny English a couple of days ago. Also because I loved the LOTR movies directed by Peter Jackson. Unferth came over as a cross between Pascal Sauvage and Wormtongue as portrayed by Brad Dourif. Not really as good as either. The accent was questionable as was the portrayal, although I have to admit that the sequence where he offered his sword to Beowulf was excellent.
The monster Grendel. Disappointing visually. Although he is supposed to be a hybrid of human/demonic coupling it just looked like the Hollow Man half way through a change. I wasn't convinced of it being a viable creature - I wasn't even really convinced of it being a monster - it was more how Mary Shelley describes Frankenstein's creation than the organic result of mating between a demon and a human. I would at least have expected it to have a tail as its' mother did (on that note why the hell is Jolie's tail coming out of her head, and not the traditional place the small of her back? No creatures in Nature have tails coming out of their heads. It looked wrong). The characterisation of Grendel though was excellent, again hearkening to Frankenstein's monster, but in this case he is poisoned not by the prejudices of man, but by the desires and wilful nature of his mother. In this I agree that he is to some extent pitiable and pathetic.
Finally, the rating. Oh yes the 12A rating. Not for the first time I wonder who is in control at the BBFC? The film makers wanting to maximise 'bums on seats' or the BBFC wanting to protect young minds from the more adult content of movies? Somebody needs to rewrite the rules, because 'animation' is now at a level where the violence and depiction of it, is close enough to reality to make no difference. They've made worse mistakes before - Star Wars Ep III - Anakin having his legs chopped off and being burned to a crisp.. a 12? I think not! Incidentally I'm 37 and by no means a prude.
Verdict. A very enjoyable and entertaining movie, Not perfect, but then so few things are it's worth enjoying the ones that come closest. This is one of them. Not one to take a 12 year old child to though, even accompanied by an adult.