Review of Beowulf (2007) by Lewis C — 04 Apr 2013

"The mother, the hag, she's not my curse. Not anymore.""The mother, the hag, she's not my curse. Not anymore.".

I think the decision to go entirely with computer animation for this adapatation of Beowulf was a good one. Sure, a live-action movie with practical effects or a mixture of CGI could have been good, but I think the movie stood out more this way, than it would have, otherwise.

The animated models look remarkably like their voice actors (you can easily tell who they're based upon, if you didn't know beforehand), and some of the backgrounds and settings are still quite impressive, a few years later. But, that's not to say that the the visuals don't still fall prey to the usual problems that arise when you try to do realistic human animation. Some of the facial expressions look odd, the movement of the characters occasionally seems very jerky and artificial, and almost every pair of eyes looks souless and dead. As I said, those issues are certainly not unique to Beowulf, but they are here.

As for the rest of the movie it's a good action flick that has some humorous moments and enough blood and violence to make it appropriate for teenagers and up. The story really only covers a few events, and there's not much here other than the battles (which are certainly entertaining) and a few talky bits. Don't expect much more than that, and you'll be content. I actually think that Beowolf would have benefitted from being made with post-Avatar 3-D technology, but even in 2-D on your tv screen, it's a fun adult adventure.