Here's my review:
http://www.gaming.pstp.net/2007/11/21/socks-movie-reviews-beowulf/
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The movie starts out with as much nudity as a PG-13 movie can offer. Since every trailer has the promise of a CGI Angelina Jolie naked, it was quite obvious that they needed the same kind of fan service for the ladies, right? To be honest, you see much more animated man booty, not only from Ray Winstone, but also from Anthony Hopkins as well. So, this is all you need to know about the first part of the movie, that is, during the sequence in the past: Beowulf is naked, The King of Denmark is wearing nothing but a single cloth, and Grendel’s Mama is covered in some strange gold stuff. However, that’s not what the movie is supposed to be about. During the first half of the movie, The King of Denmark’s super special bar place is attacked by a monster named Grendel. People die, Beowulf comes, lobs his arm off, and somehow Grendel dies. Yay. After that, Beowulf goes to confront Grendel’s mother to kill her, but gets freaky with her. In return, she devises a plan to make him the new king.
If you’re dieing to see this movie, and I wouldn’t see why, you probably wouldn’t want me ruining the second half for you, but I’ll basically say that shit hits the fan, and more people die. If you already read the epic poem, though, you can probably guess what happens. I couldn’t, I never found a copy of it, so I don’t know the credibility of my own previous statement. Either way, I probably would have enjoyed it much more actually reading it than watching it.
The ambiance is that of a Lord of the Rings style medieval setting. This isn’t really a bad thing, either. The story does seem to fit adequately enough with the snowy battlefields from Danish plains. Also, there’s a bridge. My only issue with this is that the story doesn’t seem that epic, since it’s so centrally located in this one place, the same small bridge, the same bar, the same cave. Things hardly changed over what seemed like a 10-20 year gap between the two parts of the film. It seemed like they didn’t want to spring any more cash on extra landscapes with their nifty little CGI. Then again, it’s not like that was much of an issue, really.
If there’s anything about the movie that’s noteworthy, besides it’s graphics which after a while seemed more annoying than cool, it’s that the action was pretty good. During the swimming contest and fight with the dragon scenes, the movie gave off feeling that was a combination of Shadow of the Collossus and God of War. The fight with Grendel annoyed me more than anything else, only because the attention was deliberately taken away from the fighting, and focused completely on the fact that our protagonist was bare assed naked. They did this with as many cheap camera tricks as they could think of, especially ones that involved covering his crotch area with items that were in center focus on the screen. Aside from that, though, if you want action, this movie has it’s fair share.
What killed the movie was the fact that all the characters not only told lame jokes, but they all lacked any real personality, especially John Malkovich’s character. Everyone seemed so cliche, the big and badass protagonist, the female lead that, of course, just falls for him, and what movie would be complete without an overweight raspy voiced sidekick? This is the movie’s downfall, it’s lack of subtlety and personality in each and every character. The plot is paper thin, and easily predictable. It does try a few things, like it’s use of irony in the arm that Beowulf chops off being the same one he tore off of Grendel, but other than that, it was seriously lacking.
As stated before, Beowulf isn’t that bad. It is quite watchable, but it isn’t that well done either. Sure, if you see it in 3D, you may have much more fun with the action. Otherwise, you aren’t missing anything if you don’t see this movie. If you’ve already seen anything else you wanted to see, or you need a quick action fix, be my guest and see Beowulf. However, if you’re expecting some amazing cinematic experience, you’ll be sorely dissapointed. |
I was really excited about the movie, because I enjoyed the poem. Haha, I'm a sucker for epics I guess. But, I was disappointed by it, I just thought it could have been so much better. So basically I agree with the review above. Interesting action, but not the worth swooning over. The animation layout they put it in bothers me, I saw another movie with something similar and it was just creepy looking.
I never read the poem but Ive seen trailers with angelina Jolie and that kept me interested, at least for a while.
It's using a new form of 3-d CGI. Being the geek that I am, I will probably go see it for that reason alone.
And I like the poem too...
What do you mean a new form of CGI? Are new breakthrough in CGI graphics involved in this movie? If it is what is, I think the graphics are all same for most cgi movies these days. I wonder what sets this movie apart from them in therms of CGI.
eagerly awaiting the release of the movie, want to see it badly
I watched Beowulf with a friend and it took seconds for me to digest that what I am about to see is actually an animation, not a real live action movie. I was amazed and disappointed at the same time. Amazed, because film-making has gone so far with the animation technology to the point of deceiving poor little folks like me. Disappointed, because I felt deceived somewhat.
Anyway, since I was already there in the moviehouse, there’s no point entertaining the negative and so I focused on the film itself.
Well, I am glad the movie was entertaining enough. I am just amazed with the visual effects. Truly, this movie offers so much eye candy. The story is quite OK. Beowulf, no matter how strong the warrior he is, also has his inner demons to face, and sometimes this inner demon overwhelms the person of remarkable strength and courage.
Nice movie, all in all.
wel if u ask me i wld say- not that exiting
I still need to see it. I haven't been to the theatres in a long time.
I didn't particulary enjoy the poem (ugh, ninth grade english) but I'll probably rent this movie when it comes out on DVD, because it was stylistically interesting. Do you guys think it's worth it?
I also read the poem back then but I don't recall much about it. However, I also read Micheal Crighton's "Eater's of the Dead" which is loosly based on the poem (sort of a 'reality' behind the myth thing) and it was good and heck I will even cop to having seen the "Star Trek: Voager" episode based on it (the Doctor in yet anther malfunctioning holodeck, man someone needs to recall thoes things given all the trouble they've caused over the years). I will also (sheepishly admit) that when I first saw the ad I didn't realize it was CGI (ok I wasn't fully paying attention) and really want to see it regardless of the CGI bums and what not. This movie was hilariously bad.
Shame. I really wanted to see this movie... It looked fantastic, was based on perhaps one of the greatest literary pieces ever... and yet they seem to keep hashing up the movies?
I saw it a month ago, terrible movie. They messed up the story, Jolie wasn't that naked, and well, I didn't like it. It's just some movie you have to see when it's like, $5 or less.
See it in 3D if you can. I did and it was incredible. The movie itself was sort of cheesy but then again, it was animated so they could do anything they wanted with it. Great movie & incredible in imax 3D
I've been hearing alot about this movie.. and the majority says it wasnt so good. I'm still interested in watching it thoughf or angelina.. jus sad its not showing here anymore so I could have seen her in 3d =(
I didn't read the poem so I watched the movie, anyway how different is it from the poem? What major changes were there?
i would still prefer the actual life action rather than having it been digitise. Action movie should be 'life' action and not somecomputer code re-enact the fighting or acting.
Overhyper movie .... absolutely nothing in it .....the hype created was of an amazing movie .... infact i think the ads had all the action in the entire movie ...... think the only saving grace is ....of course ... angi baby ..... she was really hot .....what a bod
We rented this film out of a Redbox at McDonald's, and I must say I was disappointed.
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This movie is significantly different from the poem and subsequent novels, giving flaws to our hero, and making Grendel's mother a seductress. Robert Zemeckis would do him lots of favors by staying away from action flicks, with only adventure films being his strong foothold. The nudity was obviously the main marketing ploy, with Beowulf cleverly covered up by camera shots of a sword, fog, and numerous other things. I'm suprised we didn't see more of his arse. Being a guy, I can only say Angelina Jolie with gold skin is a sight to see. But, still having values, I was still disgusted by the portrayal.
This is definately not the movie to see, much less to purchase.
Honestly untill the last second before the screening of Beowulf I thought it will be a normal action movie, not an animated movie :O Boy, was I surprised to realise that it's an animation. Actually for the first few minutes I thought it is a normal movie, the animated world looked so real...
As for the movie itself, I think it was fine, in the end I kind of wished there was more, but still, the story was quite nice and battles looked really good ;]
I didn't like the animation, it was too, shrekish, and off putting.
Fun story as always, Angelina is always yum, even just her voice.
Anybody want to see hotty Jolie as a Animated sexy toy.
I hope none of the boys...! So here hse is the sexy toy...
Going to watch by the end of this weekkk....
More pen outs after seeing only..........! 
and I thought it was ok. It wasn't REALLY great but the imaging was pretty well done and at very least it's another link in the chain to full on photo-realistic CGI. Of course actors will be ok becasue the characters still need voices (at least until they create convining artifical voices), of course it also effectively puts an end to type casting except voice wise.
