Beowulf is an epic poem, written in Old English about 1100 AD. It describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century. The most heroic man of the Anglo-Saxon times, Beowulf is a seemingly invincible person with all the extraordinary traits required of a hero. He is able to use his super-human physical strength and courage to put his people before himself. He encounters hideous monsters and the most ferocious of beasts but he never fears the threat of death. His leadership skills are superb and he is even able to boast about all his achievements. He is the ultimate epic hero who risks his life countless times for immortal glory and for the good of others.

Recently the poem was adapted into a movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring big name actors and actresses like Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, and of course Angelina Jolie.

I have to admit that when I went to see the movie, I was not aware that it was a Final Fantasy type animation. Hence when the movie started and I saw the defined but watercolor-like characters appearing on the screen, I was alittle taken aback. But there is no mistaking the dexterity of the animation after awhile. The most realistic character of all is probably Grendel’s mother, played by Angelina Jolie. When she finally appeared, which was like half way or three-quarters of the way through the movie, you can hear the ooooo and ahhh ripple through the movie theatre. I read somewhere that she herself was so surprised by how realistic the movie was when she saw the end product, it was almost like the real mccoy ! In fact it was so real that she actually warned her partner Brad Pitt about the supposed nude scenes, in case he felt uncomfortable about it.

Ray Winstone’s rendition of Beowulf was pretty convincing as well. You can almost imagine him with the 6-packs abs in person, fighting demons in real life.

The realness of the animation did not just extend to the characters but to the scenes as well. Because Beowulf is warrior, therefore it is to be expected that there is a fair amount of blood shed and gore, especially in the fighting scene. This is not the conventional knife stabbing kind of killing but more like how my dog would “kill”  his stuff toy….ie. pulling apart of arms and limbs, flinging of bodies around and overall bashing…we are talking that kind of primal animal instincts !

With all the computer animation effort, it almost makes you wonder if this is the way that movies of the future would be. No more actual actors and actresses required, maybe only just for their looks for visualising the character’s face and the acting out of occasional stunts to help with the digitalizing of the movie. Otherwise, most stunts can be done digitally with virtually no harm to any stuntmen.

All in all the story line was pretty good and convincing, except that I found it alittle long for an animation. On suggestion: If possible, watch the movie in a Digital 3D theatre. The sound quality is really so much better and it really allows you to immerse yourself in the whole plot from beginning to end.

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