Reviews by Matt

I guess I should have seen this coming. Animation has come a long way since the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, “Steamboat Willie,” in 1928. Where old cartoons used to be drawn painstakingly frame by frame and all by hand, today computers have replaced the artist’s pencil.

Over the past few years there have been leaps in animation. Forgettable movies like “The Wild” and “TMNT” have shown that animation has come a very long way. While these two movies were children’s movies and used animals as main characters, they looked very close to real life. I should have been expecting that day when humans were rendered perfectly in an animated movie.

Thus we have “Beowulf.”

For those, like me, who went to a high school where this was not required reading, the movie’s plot is as follows; Beowulf (voiced by Ray Winstone) comes to King Hrothgar’s (voiced by Anthony Hopkins) kingdom to rid them of Grendel (voiced by Crispin Glover). He volunteers to kill Grendel’s mother (voiced by Angelina Jolie), but because of her beauty cannot and ends up “giving her a son” instead. When he returns, Hrothgar names him the heir. The king decides that Beowulf is to be king sooner rather then later and jumps off his castle wall, Beowulf takes the throne. Years later his past comes back to haunt him when a dragon that turns out to be his son attacks the countryside.

When I walked of the theater after the movie, my friend said, “The only thing that had in common with the book was the title.” He told me that the second half of the movie never happened in the epic poem.

If you are going to see this hoping for an intriguing story and great characters, do not bother. The animation is the only reason to see this. It is simply breathtaking. In some instances it looks almost real. It does retain that cartoon feel and quality of other computer animated movies, but this takes it to a whole new level. It is better than anything to come before it and looks to become commonplace in the future.

Having a movie completely computer animated allows for freedom to do things with the camera that could not be done otherwise.

When King Hrothgar throws himself off the castle wall, the crown is placed on Beowulf’s head. The camera focuses on the
details of the crown. It starts at the back of the new king’s head and pans around showing the story of the former king and his rise to power. When it reaches what is the front of the crown is tilts down and reveals that 50 years have past and the one young Beowulf is now an aged king. It is a simple shot that can only be accomplished in a digital world.

I did see this in a regular theater, but I have heard that the best way to see it is in an IMAX 3-D theater. If I liked the plot a little more and felt like shelling out the $11 to see it, I would, but I do not have the time or the money. The movie may have a horrible story that strays from the original source material, but the animation is something to behold.

6 out of 10
PG-13 for intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity.
1 hr 54 min