When I rented this movie out I did not expect much, I almost did not watch it and send it right back. My friends here at Muni bashed it and the reviewers tore it apart. Yet, I think this one of the finest movies I have seen in a long time. The story is taken and heavily altered from the classic Beowulf poem. The story is altered in so far as it add a few more layers of emotional struggle and questions of morality to the movie, the margins between “monster” and “hero” are blurred and the question of good and evil thrown around a bit, which gives the movie slightly more depth, which was not necessary but certainly a plus. The voice acting is very good, especially by Gleeson and Hopkins whose experience and expertise in classical acting make the medieval dialogue more dynamic and lively, while Angelina Jolies feels a bit anachronistic (especially in high heels, wtf ?)

The CGI is the best I have ever seen in a movie and uses the much-talked about Digital motion capture technique. Apart from being nicely rendered, the takes and scenes are beautifully and hauntingly composed and Zemeckis classically trained Hollywood-Hand shows.

One thing I really liked about this move is that it pushed Animation away from being a “childish” and of interest mainly for kids. The movie is gritty, raunchy, brutal, twisted and perverse and matures the animation genre, which impressed me very much as it was a bold and courageous thing to do. The way the movie treats history is more accurate (apart from altering the fictional source) than every other animation / Disney movie I have seen in my life, the Danes and Geates swear, fuck, curse, die, slaughter and ravage, a true depiction of history and not your American popcorn version of dancing fairies and singing maidens. Talking of singing maidens, the movie contains many nice medieval songs composed by Alan Silverstri, hear up.

Highly recommended if you are open minded and I guess it works better on a big screen, I give em that (Luckily, I own a cinema)

H.