Spectacular animated action scenes turn the ancient epic poem Beowulf into a modern fantasy movie, while motion-capture technology transforms plump actor Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) into a burly Nordic warrior. When a Danish kingdom is threatened by the monster Grendel (voiced and physicalized by Crispin Glover, River's Edge), Beowulf--lured by the promise of heroic glory--comes to rescue them. He succeeds, but falls prey to the seductive power of Grendel's mother, played by Angelina Jolie... and as Jolie's pneumatically animated form rises from an underground lagoon with demon-claw high heels, it becomes clear that we're leaving the original epic far, far behind. Regrettably, the motion-capture process has made only modest improvements since The Polar Express; while the characters' eyes no longer look so flat and zombie-like, their faces remain inexpressive and movements are still wooden. As a result, the most effective sequences feature wildly animated battles and the most vivid character is Grendel, whose grotesqueness ends up making him far more sympathetic than any of the mannequin-like human beings. The meant-to-be-titillating images of a naked Jolie resemble an inflatable doll more than a living, breathing woman (or succubus, as the case may be). But the fights--particularly Grendel's initial assault on the celebration hut--pop with lushly animated gore and violence. Also featuring the CGI-muffled talents of Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs), Robin Wright Penn (The Princess Bride), and John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons). --Bret Fetzer

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/26/2008 Run time: 114 minutes Rating: Ur

Definitely enjoyed the Blu-ray version visuals were sweet but sound was awesome!!!never want to watch a reg. dvd again they do no justice to movies.

Though the animated movie does not follow the book,while I did read it 10+ years ago and it was not fresh on my mind,this does not detract from the movie on its own,if your into the sword&sorcery fantasy genre buy this movie you will enjoy it as much as I have.

"I am Ripper... Tearer... Slasher... Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength... and Lust... and Power! I AM BEOWULF!"

With a line like that how cn you not love this movie?!?!

This movies plot/story is missing some. But I just like the action, blood and CGI which was worth it to me. It really shows off the human nature of telling tell tales and making our shelve's look better to other but in the end just look like a fool!!!

A $150 million budget. A realistic Healthow voiced by Robin Wright Penn. An even more realistic Hrothgar voiced by Anthony Hopkins (Bobby). John Malkovich (Burn After Reading) as Unferth. Ray Winstone (The Departed) as the dominating Beowulf. And the sexiest woman alive, Angelina Jolie (Wanted) as Grendel's deceptive mother. I mean, what a cast! This is what great films are made of. And the realism of the computer animation in terms of how they resembled the actual actors was astonishing ...which begged a pretty big question: WHY NOT SIMPLY FILM BEOWULF WITH LIVE ACTION AND NOT ANIMATION?!

Cost was probably an issue, but with the $150 million budget I think they could've done a fine live action film. In 2005 Icelandic director Sturla Gunnarson proved it could be done with his very nicely done Beowulf & Grendel starring Gerard Butler (300). With comparable run times (103 minutes to 114 minutes) and Beowulf & Grendel's much lower budget (I believe it was around $75 million), it can be done and done well if you have the inclination. But, for whatever reason, director Robert Zemeckis (Monster House) decided to shoot it this way.

It may sound as if I'm bashing animated films in general, which I'm not. There are some really great ones out there (Finding Nemo, Hoodwinked, etc.), so animation can be pulled off if care is taken to present it as such. But with Beowulf, it seems they were trying to mix live action with animation in order to produce some sort of hybrid ...which simply didn't work for me. It might for some and that's fine, but, if you're going to show realistic characters that look like the actual actors, why not simply do live action? It's so maddening!

It was nice, however, to see some care taken with the source material (namely Neil Gaiman's reimagining of the epic poem by the same name). Beowulf had some shady dealings and it was refreshing to see this brought out in the story and not simply showing him as some flawless hero.

Still, if you're into animation, this one might not work for you. Or if you're solely a live action fan, this one might REALLY bug you. So beware. You've been warned.

I rate Beowulf at four stars overall. I purchased Beowulf for under $5.00 as a pre-screened DVD, and started out a complete innocent. I had never seen coming attractions, and was totally unaware of anything about this film. In fact, I purchased the movie ignorant of the ambitious computer graphics effort and totally judged this book by its fine realistic looking DVD cover.

I was not too surprised, however, to learn by watching this DVD that Beowulf was an all CGI affair. Then I suddenly noticed a main character that looked just like Anthony Hopkins (my favorite actor) as well as other characters that looked very familiar. Once the unmistakably beautiful Angelina Jolie appeared, I realized something was going on that might be important to the future of cinema.

This film was a fairly successful effort to produce a movie in which the animated screen appearance of many characters was based on the actual actor. I at first thought that it represented the first efforts to produce a computer animated film without the use of actors, but only their images and voices.

After watching the informative documentary on the making of the film I learned that the actual actors were vital and motion capture techniques (e.g., latest remake of King Kong) were used to produce these very realistic images. Although this falls far short of a time which will permit films to made by CGI which do not require actors to perform for any single role, Beowulf did not require set designers to actually build full scale sets or be limited to what could be actually be constructed.

Actors who wish to participate in such future productions will permit detailed laser scanned 3D computer maps to be made of their faces and entire body and stored in data bases which will include: generic motion capture recordings including eye motions, the unique body language of a particular actor (I noticed Anthony Hopkin's body language before his face), as well as voice spectrographs for speech. Once high speed computer algorithms and CGI effects evolve sufficiently, these celebrity actors (or their estates after their death) could simply be paid a cost effective royalty for their franchise and reserve more of their valuable time for actual performances during special film productions or theater.

In this way we will be able to see our favorite actors continue their screen appearances during their entire life and well after their death (if market rules permit), and once CGI computer techniques become cheap enough, increase the number of productions that celebrities can appear in for a small fraction of the normal production cost.

As other reviewers can attest, this movie doesn't really achieve the promise of full performance capture. The real weakness is the inconsistency of the 3D actors. Some scenes are breathtakingly real, but others look like a videogame cinematic. For some reason Angelina Jolie looks different in every shot. The background townspeople look right out of Shrek. And the silly nude fight scene with Austin Powers cover ups.

BUT, this disc has some redeeming features. The Picture-in-Picture viewing of the performance captures sessions is amazing, You watch the movie alongside the original studio capture settings. It also reveals some of the limitations of the capture technology -- there are subtle nuances in the actors' performances that aren't translated to the final movie.

There's also a great 30 minute making-of that goes into details about filming in "The Volume", the amazing sound stage where all the mocap takes place. So if you are interested at all in the technology behind the making of this film, this disc is a must watch. Otherwise, it's an enjoyable rental.