Pop Culture Buzz

GRADE: B-

This film takes place in a time of heroes, where a mighty warrior named Beowulf battles a demon named Grendel, who has cursed a small kingdom for years. After a mighty fight with the demon, he soon incurs the wrath of the beast’s evil and seductive mother. Soon after, because of his pride, Beowulf falls prey to his own demonic curse.

Eventually, the epic clash between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother forges the timeless legend of Beowulf, but his legacy is shrouded in lies. The original story of “Beowulf” is the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English. Even though a lot of the original poem is lost in Hollywood dramatics and in fetching eye candy on screen, the basic story is left intact.

Director Robert Zemeckis used a similar motion-capture technique in his other animated film “The Polar Express” that he uses in “Beowulf.” Even though this type of animation can make human faces look vacant and creepy, it works quite well with the bloody violence and action in this movie. But, I must admit I don’t yet see the point of performance capture as a whole.

After getting over the distracting animated nuances of the film I got into the story and loved the gory violence. I could have done without the gratuitous animated Angelina Jolie butt and boob shots. And how many times is Jolie going to use that phony Transylvanian accent in her movies? I think that her over hyped “anime-porn” scenes are the worst in the film.

I am glad I rented this movie on DVD and didn’t pay full price to see this on the big screen. Although I enjoyed the film’s short running time and intense action scenes, when “Beowulf” is slow, it is really slow. The creepy animation and the feeling you’re watching another “Lord of the Rings” knockoff make this film just a decent rental. It’s almost as if this movie would have been better as a live action film.