Beowulf - Thoughts

I saw the trailer of Beowulf a while ago, and was moderately interested. I rented the DVD about 6 months later when I saw the DVD at the video store. Since then it’s been lying around and I’ve been putting off watching it. For some reason I wasn’t dying to. I finally got around to it a couple of nights ago, and was pleasantly surprised. I’m not usually into medieval tales, and magic to me often feels synonymous to silliness.


Though I’d expected the movie to be boring in a monsters and demons, period sorta way, to the contrary it was quite gripping. I’d go a step further and say that it’s certainly not for the faint hearted. The story is intense, and the characters are deep. Some of the action sequences are violent, but in a necessary sorta way. What requires big mention is the fact that the movie is entirely CG. The CG is simply amazing, with enormous depth; it’s interesting to imagine the number of texture layers that would have been required for such a look and feel. For the unaware, the story of Beowulf is based on myth recorded between the 8th and 11th century.

Though all the characters were CG, the accurate motion capture and recreation along with the strong dialog made the performances stand-out. Ray Winstone as Beowulf was obviously the centerpiece, with Anthony Hopkins role as king being quite pivotal as well. Robin Wright Penn as Queen Wealthow was well cast and fitting, as was Angelina Jolie playing the role of the Grendel’s Mother and the key character of the plot. The feeling of years gone by, and the cold lifeless in the later years were well portrayed by King Beowulf and Queen Wealthow in the latter part of the movie.

As mentioned the CG was brilliant, and arguably the best to date. The DVD mastering was good, and video quality was impressive. A lot of the movie was at night, and while that contributed beneficially to the dark element of the narrative process, it also meant a lot of shadows and dull sequences. But I do believe that it was more important to have it this way, than sacrifice it lieu of daylight shots. The soundtrack was perfect for the movie, with the strong dialogues really standing out. The use of surround was limited, but nothing to complain about. I was listening to the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and the aspect ratio was widescreen 16:9, with the regular widescreen letterboxing. The DVD was a Region 1 US release DVD.

My Recommendation: Watch It (If you’re into the sorta thing, and the likes appeal to you)