Beowulf - DVD

[Fairweather Pure]

I did a search and didn't come up with a topic, so here goes...


Beowulf was a shitload better than I expected. I have the unrated version, and trust me, it is one of the few unrated movies I own that I feel really pushes the envelope. It is plain goddamn gross at times. This is no children's tale. Not even close.

The writers took some rather large liberties with the source material, but if you watch the extras it's not only justified, but somehow also fitting. Grendel was fucking cool as shit and Beowulf was a bad-ass motherfucker.

The voice acting was outstanding. The CGI was, at times, completely photorealistic. It was tripping my wife and I out during several scenes. Usually just casual talking and such. However, there were also times that the CGI didn't look so great. This was usually close up action shots of the ground, with the camera rising up in dramatic fashion. Oh yeah, you can tell that this was made in 3D due to some obvious "that must've been a 3D shot" momments. It dosen't detract, but it sure makes me wish I had seen this in the IMAX. Still, the upconverted DVD on a 56" HD set is pretty magnificent at times. There are lots of parts I plan on going back and watching just for the action sequences.

I highly recommend the movie. My wife had no desire to watch this, but by the end she was enthralled. She took a keen interest in the CGI, pointing out things like Beowulf's subtle scar than ran from his eyebrow to his chin in a diaginal, interrupting his facial hair in the process. I'll also point out that the extra material on the disc was really good. If you watch the "making of", you get some very cool character design elements that are likely too subtle to notice on your initial viewing. Now that I see how everything was tied together in the design, it will make future viewings a bit more fun.

I give this movie a solid 8/10. The CGI was spotty, varying from simply average to some of the best animation I have ever seen.

[Nick]

I read the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf this week for class for the first time, it was pretty interesting seeing where Tolkien got a lot of his muse from

I intend to get this one soon, just to see how they visually portray the monsters and Beowulf himself

[Trek]

Just saw this tonite, It was great. I wish I had seen it in the theater as well. Glad I bought it!

[miir]

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would

[Dregor Thule]

.

[Keverian FireCry]

[Winnow]

I have nothing nice to say about this movie so will only say one thing.

The GCI for the "old" Beowulf was horrible and ruined the film for me. His face was all messed up. It was sad to see both Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich with distorted faces in such crappy roles. Embarrassing for those two actors.

[Siji]

Just watched this the other night after reading the above reviews.. overall, it was ok I guess. There were a few scenes where the graphics were great but overall I wasn't all that impressed. I didn't think it was much better, and sometimes was worse, than say the Final Fantasy movie. It just wasn't all that entertaining to watch.

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

I liked it overall, but couldn't get past a ridiculous amount of annoyance with fucking Ray Winstone who's a shitty-ass actor and should've stuck to boxing.