Reviewing Movies

To appreciate Beowulf it helps if you’ve read the book though you’ll be hard-pressed to recognize the original story in this Hollywood rewrite. The saga is an oral tradition and the producers of this adult animated movie engaged Neil Gaiman to create a storyline that would hold up to modern viewers on the big screen. Indeed there is a 3-D IMAX version of this film. Though an ancient English saga this tale has its origins in ancient Viking mythology complete with longboats, mead halls and dragons.

The mead hall scenes are deliciously licentious and bawdy with much debauchery, drunkenness, and ribald humour. King Hrothgar wanders around for much of the movie with little but a poorly draped rag to cover his immodest parts and he makes no pretense in taking a nubile “bed-warmer” to his chambers in front of his Queen.

If the storyline and the monsters that drive this plot are totally improbable the animation which presents them is utterly realistic leaving one to pinch oneself to remember that the characters on screen are not live actors. If computer technology ever masters the production of believable human speech Hollywood will be able to dispense with over-priced stars altogether.

If your imagination allows you to engage the fantastical elements of this story you’re in for a wild ride. move