Beowulf

We start this review with the briefest of rants. I don't really care all that much for this whole animation thing. Either make a live-action film, or make an animation film. Don't blend the two, at least not like this. Sure, you can play with a mix, like A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life, but that is a bit different from Beowulf. Or, maybe, blend it, but make it a second priority and focus on making a good movie first. Bah.

Okay, so Beowulf. Again, I'll try not to compare the film to the epic poem upon which it's based, but for those interested, Robert Zemeckis' adaptation mostly brutalizes the great heroic story. But even if Beowulf weren't based on a story almost everybody knows, it would still suffer from a storytelling standpoint. There is almost no character development, except for the most basic and cliche of changes the title character undergoes. The script tries too hard to fit major plot points of the poem into the film, while adding little tweaks here and there (and everywhere). Beowulf is almost insulting with the creative licence it took, because it destroys everything that made the poem interesting. What we are treated to is a story of quite possibly the very worst hero of all time. Nothing about the character Beowulf is heroic, as all he cares about is himself and saving his image, one he effectively ruined by being a moron. So what about this movie is good? The acting is okay, from a group of fairly good actors, and then we have the Angelina Jolie nudity to help, as well. I wonder if Zemeckis will ever go back to the style of film making that made him famous in the first place, and if he'll give up this silly animation kick he's been on. One can only hope, right? Oh, shit, I almost forgot. Grendel, the monster for which Beowulf owes his fame, is one of the worst movie monsters I've seen in awhile. Not nearly as cool or bad ass as the book, or any other adaptation, has made him. A true, true shame.

Genre - Action (1.75)

Screenplay (1)
Acting (2)
Production (2)
Directing (2)