Quick Review: Beowulf

I have seen the movie and I liked it. Beowulf the movie is based on the old English poem by the same name. I read the poem, or some of it, in high school, and most english literature scholars know the poem very well. They have taken some liberty with the original story but kept the spirit and gist of what was going on. The movie was done completely in CGI and with the aid of motion capture. Done by the same people who brought us Polar Express, they have seen to have learned from the mistakes they made in that movie. Here, the actors were life-like and the facial expressions were real enough. Anthony Hopkins’ Hrothgar was perfect; he looked the most real of all the characters. Ray Winstone as Beowulf was well done. But the gem of the movie was Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s Mother. You could tell that the animators took time and care in getting every physical detail about her just right.

The action was great. Going into the movie I was slightly worried that it would be a repeat of Final Fantasy as far as looking more like a video game cut-scene than an actual movie. But I was more than impressed. The one thing that I look for in animated movies is camera angles. Since there are no physical constraints of what a director and a director of photography can do, I am always looking to see if this is taken advantage of. In Beowulf, we get numerous wicked angles and shots that can’t be done in a regular action film. The animation was life-like, and the voice acting was excellent. At almost 2 hours, you don’t even notice the length of the movie. If you haven’t seen it, you should.