Before going off to see Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis's latest computer-animated spectacle, I argued with a friend about its potential. I was excited to see it, but he worried it would "colonize his imagination." It's a reasonable concern about any adaptation, but especially when the work in question is the basis for half the hero epics of the last two millennia — all due respect to them Greeks, of course. To assuage the fears of the poem's fans, let me say that Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf has as much to do with "Beowulf" the poem as that Bob Hoskins movie does with Super Mario Bros. Zemeckis even says as much in the movie's press kit: "Frankly, nothing about the original poem appealed to me."
With that out of the way, the movie's pretty swell. Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman wrote a script that provides a healthy dose of easy-to-follow linearity around the characters and settings on loan from the poem, and they also managed to come up with a novel twist on the proceedings. Spoiler warning! Hrothgar is Grendel's dad! Beowulf is the dragon's dad! They both slept with Angelina Jolie! Exeunt spoilers. Despite being good fun, the first two acts of the movie are a little stilted. It seems that Avary and Gaiman weren't sure if they wanted somberness or Peter-Jackson-style bombast, and the indecision is reflected in Zemeckis' direction. This clears up by the third act, which is all bombast and to good, if not mind-blowing, effect.
The real star of Beowulf is the technology on display. The performance-capture technique Zemeckis used in The Polar Express returns here. Instead of bludgeoning his audience with an army of Tom Hankses, he uses the technology to get some remarkably subtle performances from the cast. The personalities and likenesses of Crispin Glover and Ray Winstone, as infused in Grendel and Beowulf respectively, are incredible, and speak to the raw potential of the tech. So impressive are the fantastical characters that it's slightly disappointing when the characters performed by Jolie, Robin Penn and John Malkovich merely look like digital versions of the actors themselves. It's also important to note that the movie should be seen in its digital-3D incarnation, as it's immensely more entertaining. And that's what matters with this movie. Will people still be watching it in 1300 years? Not likely, but don't let that stop you. — John Constantine