Movie Reviews, Two Stars - Written by trench on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:04 - 929 views | - 6 Comments

Beowulf (DVD)

beowulf_ver10I really did not expect this film to be this bad. As a huge fan of the fantasy genre, I had extremely high expectations based on the film’s trailers and reviews. My original plan was actually to catch this in theaters on opening night, but it looks like I made the best choice by waiting for it on DVD.

To be brutally honest with you, I thought that Beowulf was a complete flop. Besides the state of the art CGI, mind boggling special effects, and beautiful yet demonic Angelina Jolie, this film left so much more to be desired.

Yes it may sound a bit harsh, but when you take on the task of reproducing an epic tale such as Beowulf, you better have an epic storyline to compliment it. I know the writers tried to make some parts of the movie funny, but they tried to hard, and most of the humor was cheesy and at some points actually annoying. The film was just poorly written and the dialogue wasn’t done well. Hell, I’ve read old Anglo-Saxon literature in college, and it was far more interesting than the dialogue presented here.

To be fair, I did hear from some movie critics that Beowulf was excellent when watched in an IMAX theater and in 3-D. Unfortunately, Guam does not have that type of theater and my home theater does not recreate “The IMAX Experience”.

Overall, I’d say its worth a rental if you don’t care much for a good story and dialogue. The cinematography is amazing and with a good surround system and flat panel TV, the experience is a worthwhile one. Otherwise, I’d suggest you skip this film.

Synopsis:

Director Robert Zemeckis (’The Polar Express’) and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman (the ‘Sandman’ series) team up for this highly anticipated, performance-capture adaptation of the Old English epic poem. When the young warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone) travels to a neighboring kingdom and slays the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover), he is hailed as a hero. But before long, Beowulf must face an even deadlier foe: Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie), who seeks vengeance for the loss of her son. The film also stars Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Robin Wright Penn as Queen Wealtheow and John Malkovich as Unferth.



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6 Comments

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Jaden @ Screenwriting for Hollywood
Apr 6, 2008 12:50

Watching a movie on the big screen always makes it much better! Especially a movie that has great sound and visuals as this one does.

I thought the movie was ok. Yes, screenplay could have been better. I don’t understand why they didn’t use real actors when the CGI looked exactly like the real actors???? And there wasn’t any extraordinary superhero stuff they couldn’t have done in Live Action. The CGI was creepy to me. This borderline of looking almost real but having no soul in the eyes… very odd.

I loved naked Beowulf - nice touch!

Still, the movie was pretty cool at the end of the day. I am glad I saw it in the theater.

Jaden @ Screenwriting for Hollywood’s last blog post..Sunday Picture Post 5 / Research

Polaris671
Mar 4, 2008 3:51

This is one of the few movie reviews where I would have to disagree with you. This adapted screenplay was much more engaging than the source material. You don’t have to look too far back to see how bad this could have been. The live action film that came out sometime in the last three years was a complete flop. What really impressed me is how the writers decided to actually develop Beowulf’s character. This is hands down the best 100% CGI movie for mature audiences that I have watched to date.

trench
Mar 1, 2008 22:51

@ Michael- yeah, Im sure it did. Too bad I missed it.

@ Rose- If the hubby can catch this in 3-D he probably SHOULD watch it since he likes those types of movies.

@Reggie- I try not to delve too deeply into the personal lives of these actors and actresses. Sometimes I feel sorry for them. There are thousands of people with INFIDELITIES, but because these particular ones are “STARS” they are labeled unjustly most of the time. Everyone makes mistakes. Brad and Jen just didn’t work out. Thats for them to figure out.

fragileheart
Feb 28, 2008 16:28

You know what, as much as I love Ms. Jolie (despite the whole Jen’s-man-stealing thing) I’m glad to see she finally made a bad choice. It further reaffirms my hopelessly-romantic point of view that Jen & Brad were the ones who were meant to be.

fragileheart’s last blog post..Me like sexy

rose
Feb 28, 2008 6:42

oh thanks for this. my hubby loves 3d movie and since you said ts bad haha. imma tease him not to watch this. :P how are you?

i got sick thats why i havent been bloghopping :( takecare

rose’s last blog post..tamagotchi

Michael
Feb 27, 2008 21:10

Yeah, I could see your viewpoint. 3D really makes a big difference. It’s an entertaining movie, and not much more, and the visual aspect of 3D really makes a big difference.

I liked it, but I have no real need to see it again unless its in 3D on the big screen.

Michael’s last blog post..Rambo [Review]

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