Beowolf (2007)

Beowolf. I was skeptical from the start for a number of reasons.

a) It looks pretty stupid
b) It's like the fourth Beowolf film made in the last few years
c) I don't like overdone movies

But I'm home, Margo is working, I have a few hours to kill and a DVD. Most importantly, I have a movie blog to entertain. Shall we dance?

After all that, Beowolf is actually not a bad movie. While the animation is mildly annoying, the action is pretty good. Using animation allows Robert Zemeckis to use legitimate good actors for the male leads instead of Nordic looking pretty faces. Ray Winstone does well as Beowolf, and imo Brendan Gleeson(of recent Harry Potter fame) steals the show as the stalwart sidekick Wiglaf. Anthony Hopkins obviously has terrific Voice talent in addition to his acting chops.

Here is my problem with the movie. IT IS NOT BEOWULF. It should be an adventure story, another line entirely. Why call it Beowolf when it is probably 40% based upon the original story? This was my main problem with Miami Vice(the movie). Well, my main problem was that it was terribly done trash. But my other problem with Miami Vice is that it wasn't about Miami Vice. It was a random story about two cops. Not based at all upon the original. So here we are with this other way overblown hyperbole. Is there an avid following of the classics that makes it profitable to loosely follow old stories? Why not make it a new story? I honestly don't understand.

Final Answer : not a bad movie, just ignore the title.

**Edit** I forgot to mention two things yesterday
Though Angelina Jolie is on the cover of the movie, and seems to be in all the previews she has about 5 minutes of screen time. Admittedly she does look quite amazing animated, but this is a bit silly
Secondly, how in the world is this movie PG-13? There are people graphically being ripped in half, and we have a naked woman grabbing a naked man's business. Adult 'themes' like the dreaded homosexuality garner an 'R' in one second, crap like this is really PG-13?