I’ll start by saying that I know Beowulf / Grendel / Grendel’s mother from the poem, and I was somewhat terrified of the monster of that prose, and thought Beowulf to be a kind of superman of the age, a belligerent Conan as it were. So I was somewhat surprised to find that the biggest hit on my senses, apart from the obviously sumptuous visuals (of which more later), was that they portray Beowulf as more of a man than does the poem. He has failings, is not entirely honest about his past deeds and is in fact more vulnerable than I ever recalled from my English classes. At this point, I had to check myself and try not to analyse the character too much - if you are unfamiliar with the poem then you will be fine, but for me they have placed modern persona on a man of his time, a man as savage as the foes he faced. Good or bad? That is a difficult question, since the story makes that a central thesis, and as it plays out in the film it simply works!

Now to the visuals, it would be hard to be unimpressed with this effort, the ‘motion-capture’ works very well, is so well done that the characters seem almost real. Begging the question, if the creation of realism is that important, why not just do the film with actors, and employ the ‘motion-capture’ when you really need it for the monsters etc? Certainly there is a warmth between characters when the chemistry works, that simply does not come over in animation. Hard to answer that one, and unless I see it in the 3D version, I doubt that I will know how much difference it makes in that aspect. Some of the character translation from real to animated life seems a bit odd too, easily recognisable is Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar and John Malkovich as Unferth, and obviously Angeline Jolie (and her ‘charms’) as Grendel’s mother. But Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) looks like a worried young Michelle Dotrice (some Mothers Do Ave Em), whilst Ray Winstone as Beowulf (a curious choice for me in any case) seems to have morphed into Sean Bean.

The screenwriting is tight and smartly constructed; the characters are fleshed out well, the relationships between the characters works, and it has a somewhat adult overtone, especially Ms Jolie’s bounteous form! There is a rather touching love story played out, which I did not expect, and I’m fairly happy that it adds something to this tale of mans weakness, lust and greed. Overall, the film is engaging but it does go on longer than seems necessary, I think 10 minutes shaved sometime around the ¾ mark would make it near perfect in delivering the intended spectacle. Visually it is a triumph for Robert Zemeckis, with one major drawback, the eyes just don’t have it, if the eyes had the lifelike qualities achieved by the rest of the animation, it would really shine.

If you are comfortable watching animation, this will certainly be of interest, however I think some find it hard to be fully immersed, and even more find characterisations of real people into animation even more testing. The final scenes and battle are certainly worth the wait, and lift the film at the ‘saggy point’. I now have a yearning to see it’s full glory in 3D, and to that end I must make a trip to a n IMAX enabled environment when I can find one.

8/10 - I question the why in terms of animation, and the change in character more than I question the integrity of the film itself. It does have some flaws, but is a story well told and captivating. In the end, it depends on whether you can accept the animation and the retelling of the story with the romantic slant.