Beowulf

Beowulf is visually stunning in all respects, with great music by Alan Silvestri, whether spectacular or dark, in Angelina Jolie’s cave. Also, the atmosphere of the film is so thick that it could be cut with a knife and the violence, sex and the overall maturity of the film are major pluses. These aspects make Beowulf an original and much livelier animated movie than the childish Polar Express. But there is one big but... these digital pictures just don’t have heart, no matter how hard they try. And at the moments when there is no Anthony Hopkins, Angelina or some monster, there’s nothing to watch. If Robert Zemeckis mastered the heart of digital animation, he might make better movies than Pixar. But he still has a lot to learn. (07/01/2008)

Sure, if Zemeckis had conceived of it as a feature film, he would have saved himself a lot of work and money, but he chose a more thorny path because he has always been Mr. Playful and I admire people like him. So I won't bemoan the fact that the young queen of Wealhthéow looks very stupid with her deadpan expression (to the point of being an eyesore), that the movements of the galloping horses lack their natural grace, and that the representation of emotions in the human face through pixels leaves a lot to be desired. After all, this is an animated film, why analyse every twitch of a facial muscle? Besides, Beowulf is mainly adorned with other things: a story that draws you in and doesn't let go, a compelling mythology, lots of blood, as well as heroic, even poetic music, when Wealthéow plays his lute. And what’s more important, the cluster of pixels managed to evoke the atmosphere of the cold Nordic lands, no matter what anyone says. Once upon a time, years ago, I admired the amazing animated intro and the cut scenes on the legendary game “Diablo 2”, which the guys from Blizzard have always mastered perfectly, and dreamed how interesting and daring it would be to make a whole movie in this spirit. Zemeckis came out with something like that and he made me happy. (20/04/2008)

An excellent retelling of the poem of Beowulf. Zemeckis is a great director who is engaging and can keep the pace of the story going, but the new technologies have proven to be more negative than positive. It is hard to enjoy a battle scene while under attack by flagrant digital artificiality. Unfortunately, it is also clear that the movie was made for IMAX, and the long fly-bys and spears in the face are more intrusive than interesting. But maybe if we wait a few years for special effects teams to create new textures, “enliven" their eyes, and fix all the mistakes, we'll be pleasantly surprised. P.S. Silvestri's music is excellent. (28/02/2008)

Effort is good and it definitely counts, but the fact that it is a 3D animated film where the characters look quite realistic is not a factor that would really throw me off. I remember not liking it even in the cinema, and after watching it a second time, I can only confirm this. There are great action scenes, but they don't redeem it overall. (11/03/2015)

The action sections are reminiscent of a slightly above-average computer game intro (although even here the creators could learn a lot, for example from the intro of The Witcher), the characters are inhumanely bulbous, the horses roll like fates, and the moments when emotions are supposed to radiate from the animation completely miss the mark. Which is actually a shame, because otherwise Beowulf is quite a nice and surprisingly not entirely clichéd heroic epic – if it is judged by the standards of Hollywood. It has decent music and a good atmosphere in places, but the animation absolutely fails with regard to reviving the world "offscreen". Beowulf is a horribly narrow film that lives only in a small section of the camera; otherwise, it resembles an indifferent thing that fatally lacks persuasiveness. (10/06/2009)