Running time: 115 minutes
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Robin Wright Penn, Alison Lohman
Rating 6 out of 10
If you are going to see Beowulf, then there is simply no point in seeing it in anything other than the 3-D version. Director Robert Zemeckis follows up The Polar Express with another film made using his innovative motion capture technique, which gives the final product a vivid animated quality. Swords may well be pointed in your face, rocks and waterfalls may well tumble somewhere between your seat and the screen and dragons may appear to breathe fire down on you, but does this all a good film make? Only in parts, unfortunately.
For those of you who were asleep during the relevant lesson in school - or who never got taught it at all - the legend of Beowulf is regarded as the oldest written poem in the English language. The titular hero sails to Denmark to slay a monster called Grendel, who has held the local King Hroogar and his people in fear due to his random murderous attacks. After killing the beast, Beowulf is decorated and worshipped as a hero, but a threat remains in the shape of Grendel's grieving mother.
Zemeckis uses a script by fantasy uberscribe Neil Gaiman and former Tarantino co-writer Roger Avary which puts its own spin on the tale, and one which raises some interesting points about Beowulf's character and his relationship with Grendel's mother. But it takes an awfully long time to get around to this: apart from a couple of spectacular battle sequences involving Grendel, most of the film's opening hour seems interminably talky, and is largely confined to the King's Great Hall.
It also takes itself extremely seriously and therefore the occasional attempts at humour fall flat. In fact, most of the humorous sequences are unintentional, notably a fight which Beowulf decides to undertake in the nude and which provides several Austin Powers-style cover-ups.
Ray Winstone shouts 'I have come to slay your monsta!' a lot and the slimline muscular character he is given barely resembles the British actor. Others, including a naked Anthony Hopkins and a sultry Angelina Jolie (replete in fetching sixth century high heels) are more familiar. Crispin Glover does a very good job of portraying the tortured Grendel and we are constantly reminded that Tolkien used Beowulf as major inspiration for his Rings series.
Finally there is the animation. While it is undoubtedly spectacular and clever in parts it does beg the question as to whether or not the film would have been more involving had it been shot in traditional circumstances. In the accompanying press notes Roger Avary cites that it had always been his dream to make the film in a gritty 2-D style, until a very large cheque was waved in front of his face.
