Based off of an extended poem that nearly everyone has been forced to read at some point in their lives, Robert Zemeckis brings Beowulf to the screen in his unique animated style. The film is engaging, unique, and flawed. The movie also loses its 3-D effects on the small screen, leaving the film somewhat dry.
Beowulf is your typical fantasy bad-ass, killing sea monsters by slashing out their eyes, beating down deformed monsters, and single handedly taking on a dragon as it attacks. Ray Winstone plays Beowulf, though what’s on screen is certainly not him. Instead, a digital double stands in for the entire cast, using the same style of animation as Polar Express back in 2004.
Those few years in-between have undoubtedly advanced the technology. While the film is definitely hindered by robotic and unnatural movements, it is indistinguishable from the real life when it comes together. The amount of detail and care that has been put onto the characters via textures is remarkable.
The story enough is a fairly simple tale, though on screen, it becomes an epic. Beowulf becomes king after saving a kingdom from the terror of Grendel, and then takes on Grendel’s mother, played by a nude animated version of Angelina Jolie. Fights are filled with insane amounts of blood and gore. The body count soars in the first battle, and how this ever ended up with a PG-13 rating is a mystery only the MPAA can answer for.
The fight between Grendel and Beowulf is unintentionally hilarious. For whatever reason, Beowulf fights in the nude. The methods used to cover up the nudity are guaranteed laughs. Not only are some of them obvious phallic symbols, it feels like a scene take right out of The Simpsons. True to the original story or not, it’s campy and misguided.
Downtime between battles is relatively mundane, saved by impressive visuals. This one definitely feels overlong, and the romance goes nowhere fast. The character of Beowulf simply isn’t that interesting on his own when he’s not battling it out with giant monsters. Thankfully, the ending does make the character a flawed, sympathetic human, capping off the story nicely. The contrast from Beowulf’s earlier battles to his finale struggle is a nice change of pace.
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