Starring: Robin Wright Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Baker (XXI), John Bilezikjian, Rod D. Harbour Directed By: Robert Zemeckis Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: Blu-ray Format: AC-3, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen Label: Paramount Number of Items: 1 Release Date: July 29, 2008 Running Time: 114 minutes Theatrical Release Date: November 16, 2007
Amazon.com: Spectacular animated action scenes turn the ancient epic poem Beowulf into a modern fantasy movie, while motion-capture technology transforms plump actor Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) into a burly Nordic warrior. When a Danish kingdom is threatened by the monster Grendel (voiced and physicalized by Crispin Glover, River's Edge), Beowulf--lured by the promise of heroic glory--comes to rescue them. He succeeds, but falls prey to the seductive power of Grendel's mother, played by Angelina Jolie... and as Jolie's pneumatically animated form rises from an underground lagoon with demon-claw high heels, it becomes clear that we're leaving the original epic far, far behind. Regrettably, the motion-capture process has made only modest improvements since The Polar Express; while the characters' eyes no longer look so flat and zombie-like, their faces remain inexpressive and movements are still wooden. As a result, the most effective sequences feature wildly animated battles and the most vivid character is Grendel, whose grotesqueness ends up making him far more sympathetic than any of the mannequin-like human beings. The meant-to-be-titillating images of a naked Jolie resemble an inflatable doll more than a living, breathing woman (or succubus, as the case may be). But the fights--particularly Grendel's initial assault on the celebration hut--pop with lushly animated gore and violence. Also featuring the CGI-muffled talents of Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs), Robin Wright Penn (The Princess Bride), and John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons). --Bret Fetzer
Lame Great visuals, but a long boring film. Bought it based off hype, won't make that mistake again.
If you can get past the strobe lights during the Grendall attack, you might like it. At least you may find it intriguing. As an English Lit geek, I've always wanted to see Beowulf as film. I knew it would be gory, but I told my husband that he could turn it off during the attack scenes. He wanted to go into it a little further before giving up and I'm glad we did. Besides having an old classic remade into a movie, the making of it was even more impressive. If you didn't like the actual movie, go into the extra features and see how it was made...Impressive!
Great Movie This is a great movie, the only thing was i had to change my blu-ray players settings in order to watch the movie. I found out that the movie will not play on the 24p setting you must change it to the 60p setting in order to watch it. Other then that I would recommend this, great graphics, digitally enhanced people and good special effects made it a good buy for me.
An Epic Performance This was a fascinating, epic performance of perhaps the most thrilling epic poem in all of western literature.
While the original poem is left far behind, with Grendel's mother posing as an evil seductress who tempts Beowulf with riches and fame if she will merely mate with him, the flavor of the original remains.
Interesting to me was the juxtaposition of Christian imagery, with a reference to Jesus Christ which is not present in the poem, against traditional pagan mythology of monsters, dragons, and superhuman feats. While Beowulf the poem does feature (exclusively Old Testament) biblical allusions and implies knowledge of Christianity (references to heaven, hell and final judgment, metaphor of the dragon as Satan), it is not a Christian poem.
The movie appears to try to point out, and the likely case, that Beowulf was written at a time when Christian theology was only beginning to become known in 6th century Denmark, and somewhat better known in 8-10th century England. So Christian references appear alongside proclamations of allegiance to Odin, and acknowledgment of Roman gods as simply another possible ally.
Beowulf himself appears as a savior, who is greatly tempted by Grendel's mother with promises of eternal fame and fortune, and peace, if she will only provide him a son and the dragon-mead flask. Ultimately, Beowulf realizes her promise to be an empty one, and that morality cannot be supplanted by convenience; thus he goes to fight the dragon -- and his own son -- and ultimately is killed himself.
The animation is slightly less wooden than in Polar Express. But it works better here, for the characters appear stoic in their relationships and bravery. Anthony Hopkins is brilliant as Hrothgar; Angeline Jolie less so as Grendel's mother.
I do recommend this film to anyone; especially if you have just read the poem, or are about to do so.
Angelina Jolie rules men even in digital form Not surprisingly, this movie is not very good. I wasn't expecting LORD OF THE RINGS here, or even DRAGON SLAYER, so I entered with low expectations. Some people think video games are better forms of entertainment and artistic expression than films. I'm not sympathetic to this view. Anyone who claims this is simply expressing an ignorant and sophomoric mentality. But watching BEOWULF I would say that sometimes a video game can be "better" than the movie. These days the line between some movies and video games strictly in terms of visual style has been erased. I don't care that much for the look of BEOWULF, but by video game standards it's cool. It's plastic and feels incomplete. The nerds that crafted the digital picture did do a decent job of fleshing out Angelina Jolie, however. I want to say I have seen this style of animation done better elsewhere, but where I can't recall. I think a traditional style of animation would have served this classic mythological tale much better. I give them credit for the generous helpings of blood and guts and some of the earthy depictions of people in the Dark Ages. If you got to write a report for school don't watch this popcorn flick as a substitute for reading the story. Or reading the Cliffnotes or whatever.
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