I. . . SAW. . . BEOWULF!!!

And I really enjoyed it. I'm not going to get into a rant about whether or not technology has ruined animation, if mocap is really animation, where is Walt when you need him, blah, blah, blah. I'm getting sick of reading all of these 2D versus 3D debates on the message boards. What about the topics that matter? Like the fact that Dreamworks still wants to make two more Shrek movies? Or how they were trying to make a G.I.Joe movie without Cobra? Or how organic web shooters turned out to be a good idea? Seriously, people. Get a life!

Story. First of all, if you think this is the Cliffs Notes version of the epic poem, then of course you won't like it. If you want to know the real story, then read the book. This is definitely epic, but more like Transformers epic. The story never really dragged, and I never thought to check the time.

Characters. For once the hero isn't the lamest character in the movie. Beowulf is such an arrogant, pompous ass, that not even Angelina Jolie and her terrible accent can overshadow this hero. Sure, he exaggerates how many monsters he's fought and how big they were, but that doesn't mean that the man is any less brave.

Wealthow was not as useless as I was afraid she would be, although I didn't think putting her in danger near the end of the film was necessary. She didn't need to be a damsel in distress.

The character I probably liked the most was Wiglaf. This was the kind of character that you know has a long history with Beowulf. He is aware of Beowulf's flaws, but still remains loyal.

Grendel was awesome, although I didn't feel any sympathy for him when he died. I almost feel that the scene with his mother before he died wasn't meant to garner sympathy, but to show us just how ridiculously over-the-top this movie was going to get.

Animation. The one thing that I wish they wouldn't have done was make some of the characters look like their actors. It was distracting in the beginning of the film when they introduced Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) and Unferth (John Malkovich) because I knew who these actors were. I eventually got used to it and found myself wrapped up in the story. Then they introduce Angelina Jo--I mean Grendel's mother. That was distracting. If you can't tell, I'm not a fan.

Most of the time the animation was the kind of fluid you would expect from mocap. However, there were times when the animation was a little choppy, and you could tell it's because these were scenes that were animated from scratch or tweaked.

Another distracting thing were the lip movements. They were a little too subtle and almost looked like bad lip synching. Also, none of the characters could look straight ahead or at each other. They were able to get some nice expressions through eyebrows, foreheads, and mouths. Most of the time they just looked blind.

It isn't perfect, but it is still a hell of a lot better than Polar Express. The biggest problem I had with that movie was the lack of expressions and the number of characters Tom Hanks played. Just knowing that a different actor was used as a voice and model for each character makes Beowulf a lot richer.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Although I would probably only recommend it to people who are really curious about where this technology is going. It isn't the future of film, but it is definitely going somewhere.

Jason