Review of Beowulf (2007) by Stuart K — 07 Feb 2013

Robert Zemeckis takes on the Old English poem using the Motion Capture animation technology he previously used on The Polar Express (2004), it's a visually stunning film with a good all star cast at it's core. The only thing is that at the time this was made, mo-cap still wasn't perfected in the way that it was in Avatar and Tintin, and maybe Zemeckis should have waited until the technology was actually ready, but it's still good. In ancient Scandinavia, mighty warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone) is asked by King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) to rid his land of the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover), and Grendel's Mother (Angelina Jolie), it seems like a doddle for the might Beowulf, who has faced creatures like sea monsters before, but there's a lot of complexity to Grendel, and it turns out Hrothgar is responsible for Grendel, and the only way Beowulf can prevent any more wars across the land is to make a deal with Gendel's Mother, many years later, it comes back to haunt Beowulf. A real visual feast of a film, even if the story sags in places, (though it is translated well from the old English by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery), and is camp as hell, it's violent, scary and suspensful in all the right places, and our Ray makes a good, hunky 7ft warrior. But, it would be good to see director Zemeckis get back to some live action filmmaking one day!!

Robert Zemeckis takes on the Old English poem using the Motion Capture animation technology he previously used on The Polar Express (2004), here, we have Ray Winstone as the titular warrior Beowulf, asked by King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) to rid his land of the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover), and Grendel's Mother (Angelina Jolie). A real visual feast of a feast, and the Mo-Cap animation has improved alot since Zemeckis' last effort, even if the story sags in places, (though it is translated well from the old English by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery), and is camp as hell, it's violent, scary and suspensful in all the right places, and our Ray makes a good, hunky 7ft warrior!! ;) But, it would be good to see director Zemeckis get back to some live action filmmaking one day!! :P.