Dir. Robert Zemeckis
Writ. Neil Gaiman, Rogery Avery
Act. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jole, John Malkovich

The long anticipated movie about this epic tale of heroism, pride, and lust, has arrived and I can't help but yawn at the experience. I was excited at seeing this movie until I discovered that it was a CGI film. Why make this epic tale a cartoon? At least do what the Sin City/300 team did and shoot real actors with green screen around them. I was trying to figure out why Robert Zemeckis, Director of Forrest Gump and Cast Away, would want to be involved in this film. I discovered something quite interesting about Zemeckis, possibly even more so then this film, which has some fun writing but would have been much better as a live action movie than cartoon.

King Hrothgar, played by Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs,) is celebrating his kingdom at his new hall when the troll Grendel, played by Crispin Glover (Charlie's Angels) breaks the party up and kills most of the citizens. King Hrothgar closes the hall and sends out a plea to any hero to come kill it. Beowulf, played by Ray Winstone (King Arthur,) answers the call and does in deed kill Grendel. However, by killing Grendel, he unleashes the wrath of his mother, played by Angelina Jole (A Mighty Heart) and a curse that haunts Hrothgar and soon Beowulf himself.

The first problem I have with this movie is that there is no reason that this film is computer generated. Technology is now available so that green screen filming with live actors would have been fine. The CGI was poor also. The faces were emotionless and the graphics were definitely a step back. However, I will say the graphics of the landscape were very good. It just seemed to miss the minor details of the peoples' faces.

The computer problems drew my attention away from the story at first. The story itself had almost a split personality. The story was very engaging between the time Beowulf entered the town to the time he had sex with Angelina Jole. Before and after those times, I thought it was a little slow, although it wasn't bad. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery who separately have written vastly different films wrote the script. Gaiman wrote this years Stardust, based on one of his books, while Avery has written such recent classics as Silent Hill and The Rules of Attraction. I am really starting to enjoy Gaiman's work and will make a large assumption that the parts of the story that I liked were his doing.

The thing I noticed with Robert Zemeckis is that he seems to be fascinated with technology and wants to work in this medium. The last movie directed was The Polar Express, which is computer animated. Looking at the library of his films, I noticed a lot of stories that were about or used technology. He created the Back To The Future series, produced horror and sci-fi movies that required lots of computer graphics, such has Silent Hill, Thir13en Ghosts, What Lies Beneath, and the remake of the House on Haunted Hill. Even Forest Gump had lots of technology in it. So I guess what I am saying is that Zemeckis is a tech nerd moviemaker. That is not a bad thing, I just wish he would make better films. Outside of the 1st Back To the Future and Forest Gump and Cast Away, the rest of the stuff has been mediocre at best.

I can't really talk about the acting because the computer graphics did nothing to help show the emotions of the actors. So I will give everyone involved a pass. Although I do wonder if Crispin Glover was typecast as Grendel. Glover is creepy and so was the troll.

I am not sure if I can recommend watching this movie or not. The graphics are less than appealing and distract from the story. But parts of the story are quite enjoyable and Jole is naked in it, even if it is CGI she still is hot. I leave the choice to you.

Brian - the Naked Gun