Beowulf Director's Cut

Rating NR Formats Blu-Ray, HD-DVD Genre animated Starring Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, Angelina Jolie Directed by Robert Zemeckis Publisher Paramount External Links Official Beowolf Website

First and foremost, Beowulf is one of the most articulate CGI features to date. Motion capture does some amazing things - especially where realism is concerned. Everything else aside, mainly because I will be getting to it later, this movie should win some kind of animation award. Lighting, kinematics, and even sound is top-notch. It will be hard to top from a technical standpoint. At least in that respect, the bar is raised. It will hopefully force anything following to reach for even higher stars.

Not to set up this movie for a major fall, but from here on out, it's a bit shakey. Beowulf is not a complete snoozefest. However, there is a key issue that will affect the viewing audience, and that's whether or not they've read the tale before watching the film. Chances are that most people who watched the movie did not remember reading it in high school, or they never were required to read it at all. In either case, there is a massive departure from the book in that regard. There is a reference to the actual telling of the tale, which does make for an interesting homage.

Character choices seem to be in question in a few roles. Okay, okay, only one role. Does Angelina Jolie serve any other actual purpose in this film other than sex appeal? Her performance as Grendel's mother seemed rather cut-and-paste in comparison to the rest of the setup. Unfortunately, her insertion also seems to mark the down point of the film. Everything else seems rushed afterwards. Up until that point, it all seemed pretty on the ball.

After watching it, I oft wonder if it would have done better as an animated narrative instead of a cinematic retelling. There would have certainly been enough interest. And make no mistake; Robert Zemeckis is no average Joe when it comes to film. There's no lack of direction in the story whatsoever, but it doesn't quite tie in as firmly as it ought. Maybe this is what happens when you only get half of Brangelina. Although, there are incredibly convincing performances from both Anthony Hopkins and Robin Wright Penn. Even in an epic tale, they seemed the most realistic.

Deleted scenes were not what I expected on the extras. Not every day does anyone get a look into a rough storyboard animatic though. It definitely adds flavor and style to an ordinary staple amongst DVD's today. These, along with the other special features, are all worth the extra viewing time. Allow your belief to be suspended by watching the film first. Then, get into all the "how-to's" and "how-come's." It is definitely the perfect end to a better-than-most feature.