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Beowulf Movie Review

Beowulf is a 2007 animated fantasy action film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Ray Winstone. It’s a solid, very underrated flick.

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“Keep a memory of me, not as a king or a hero;

but as a man: fallible and flawed“

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The warrior Beowulf must fight and defeat the monster Grendel, who is terrorizing Denmark, then Grendel’s Mother, who begins killing out of revenge. This movie was based on the titular Old English epic poem that I know very well given that I had to study it extensively during my first year in college. It is one of the classics of heroic poetry and it’s so timeless in quality that it’s ridiculous that it has been adapted so sparingly for this medium.

What Zemeckis did in approaching this movie is make a motion-capture animated take on it, which mostly worked, though it is rather dated nowadays. Although highly praised for its visuals back when it came out, watching it now the animation did not age like fine wine whatsoever. The faces look great of course as these are live-action actors done in motion-capture, so the expressiveness there was palpable. However, the overall backgrounds, designs and creatures felt rough and unpolished. Too often the movie resembled a video game cutscene instead of an animated film.

But the score is actually excellent and fittingly epic in tone. The directing from Zemeckis is solid and this is by far one of his best movies in this century that did not see his greatest output unfortunately. The film is two hours long, but it did not feel as long given that it’s surprisingly engaging and even very entertaining in some epic fight scenes.

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The action is stupendously well executed, resulting in a couple of standout sequences that were so well choreographed and just so much fun. Still, no matter how well done those scenes were, the action was still overwhelming and the movie was in desperate need of some drama and adventuring. Even the fantastical elements, though solid, took a backseat to all the action.

But at least thematically this Beowulf adaptation wasn’t all that hollow. It’s not as richly woven as the source material, but it does explore mythology and hero-making and the differences between being a hero and being a king. The final sequence is quite moving and so epic in its feel and tone.

The main character is actually much better here than in the poem. Neil Gaiman as the screenwriter changed him from an obnoxiously arrogant hero with no flaws to a flawed, more human and relatable person that had a genuinely great arc for himself. This is the best improvement over the original text by far.

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But others fared much worse. Grendel was changed from a scary demon to a childlike monster reminiscent of Gollum. Although he had his moments, I still preferred the original design. His mother played by Angelina Jolie was overly sexualized and that entire dynamic grew tiresome very quickly. The addition of a child was also predictable, and although it did lead to that amazing third act, this family drama still felt too prolonged and standard. Anthony Hopkins as the king was quite memorable and fun in a smaller role.