Not as bad as some are saying, Not as good as you hoped

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2008)

Given the power of the cast and the budget, you perhaps hope for a movie which is stunningly entertaining and in some way expands your consciousness, if only for a brief 90 minutes or so. Unfortunately you get neither, just an action movie with a rather twisted and unhistorical plot. The acting does not shine through the CGI very well. Maybe it's because I am in my 50s and did not grow up with CGI, but I keep feeling like I am watching a cartoon, which is to say the least distracting.
I can certainly understand that in such spectacles as the monster fight, CGI offers at least an approximation of realism. But in scenes where human interaction predominates, CGI falls far short of communicating human expression and emotion and leaves me cold.
There is a lot of discussion of the historical "accuracy" of this movie. I did a little research, and it seems that there are major gaps in the major historical document (literally, much is missing or has crumbled away), and how it should be interpreted. Given this, it seems peculiar to pan the latest rendition of a reality that causes great controversy, even among academics. I do agree that Beowulf is portrayed in a very unflattering and unfavorable light by the movie.
In the obvious comparison CGI movie, the 300, the producers emphasized the myth. In Beowulf, they denigrated it. Neither, by itself, is reason to reject the movie itself. But 300 sold itself as a CGI production, and exceeded expectations. Beowulf sold itself as an exceptional human drama and fell flat on its face, saved but hardly exalted by its action scenes.