Sometimes Not Even A Hero is Perfect: Beowulf (2007)

I've always wanted to see Beowulf, but I've been told on several occasions to avoid it because it was bad. Most would cite the computer animation as being jarring, or that they didn't like the story, so I had all this in my mind as I started it up heedless of their warnings. It's just one of those movies I thought I should see for myself so that I could judge it on my own, and for myself. It's just always seemed to be a point of interest for me, as far as computer animation in film goes. With that, I dove in curious as to what I would find. Hit the jump to find my thoughts after the break.


Beowulf is about a powerful, but prideful warrior who has defeated many great beasts and monsters with his bare hands. He hears of a land over the sea that lives in fear of a terrible monster named Grendel. The King of the land offers him riches, women, and power if he can manage to slay the foul beast. There is more to the story, but I'd rather not get into that as it could count as a spoiler.

As I suspected, the most important thing to get out of this movie are the advanced computer graphics used for the animation. It's like an upgraded version of the graphics I saw in Final Fantasy Spirits Within. So many times in the movie I realized, just for a moment, I was fooled into thinking I was really looking at Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar. There are several other characters that they create nearly perfectly based on the actual actors, and for these it's often astounding to watch them. At least it was to me. It is undeniable, however, that the movie often falls victim to the "Uncanny Valley" as well. I think this is were many of the complaints I've heard come from. There's just something that isn't quite right about some of the characters, and is often on the edge of being disturbing to watch them move about. However, there are times that it actually climbs out of the valley and that's when it looks amazing!

Angelina Jolie stars as the mother of monsters

The acting quality is a difficult thing to discuss because you're not really seeing the actors, even if it sometimes looks like you are. Nevertheless, I wanted to try to bring it up to a certain degree. The two actors that I thought did the best job, and it isn't surprising considering, were Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich. It was driving me crazy for the whole movie that I couldn't quite remember John Malkovich's name while I could hear his voice. He was one of the characters that they didn't quite render to look exactly like the actor that lent them their voice, but his speech confronting Beowulf was pretty awesome, if short. Angelina Jolie was rendered beautify, but her role was pretty thin so there wasn't much for her to get into in terms of acting.

One of the oddest characters in the movie for me was, unfortunately, Beowulf himself. I had no idea who his actor was, or if I was supposed to be recognizing his face like I could recognize some others. It turns out Beowulf doesn't look anything like his voice actor Ray Winstone. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea who this gentleman is, or why he was cast in particular for the lead. Of all the performances, I felt his was one of the weaker ones. I wouldn't say he was bad, but I just didn't think the voice meshed well with the man I was seeing on screen. I just never bought it.

Beowulf arrives in Grendal's watery lair to confront the monster

One thing I can say is that I didn't see the ending sequence of the movie coming until it was actually happening. This is really hard to talk about without giving anything away about it. Let me just say, I didn't expect the movie to have the scope that it did, and that the final action sequence was totally awesome!

I didn't find myself having all the issues that I've heard people complain about to me since Beowulf came out. I actually kinda liked it. I can see the flaws in it, such as a fairly basic story, and the issues associated with the Uncanny Valley theory, but even so I still had some fun in the end. The action was quite good throughout the whole movie, and I think it helped that I went in with lowered expectations. I think I would recommend this to any one who likes viking/Norse type stories, or really anything fantasy, so long as you go in with realistic expectations. Have fun with this one.