The legendary tale of Beowulf is a timeless. For many, their first introduction was the 2007 CGI movie starring some big names like Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and Brendan Gleeson. The film didn’t do very well at the box office, maybe because… well, I’m not sure.
It came in right before the big Viking craze and I can’t remember what the main thing was in those days. I think if this film released now with better graphics, it would do better. However, the film’s poor commercial performance doesn’t stop the movie from being damn good in my eyes.
The CGI Approach
Beowulf is done entirely in CGI. The whole thing looks like a cinematic trailer for a game. It’s not as good as some Love, Death and Robots episodes. But for its age, it looks really good. Though I found the facial expressions to be a little wonky at times.
The Legend
Beowulf has stood the test of time as a story. The legend has been told countless times and even features in the latest Assassin’s Creed as additional content. I liked this version of the story due to its strong cast and how flawed the man behind the legend was.
The film does suffer from that, “We have a limited time to tell a story, so let’s cram everything.” curse some films suffer from. And as a result, the final act is rushed and passes by so fast. It is pretty much over as soon as it can be processed. Though despite that, it still holds as a good movie. Sometimes, films are just released at the wrong time and it is a sad thing.
Beowulf is on Netflix at the time of writing this article.
