Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A 6th-century Scandinavian warrior named Beowulf embarks on a mission to slay the man-like ogre, Grendel.
Zemeckis's motion-capture adaptation of the Old English epic has visual ambition and a revisionist angle on the source myth — Beowulf's unreliable heroism and complicity with Grendel's mother add some psychological texture — but the screenplay (Gaiman/Avary) oversimplifies the poem's thematic complexity and the third-act dragon confrontation feels rushed and tonally uneven. The motion-capture performances are competent but the uncanny-valley effect blunts the emotional impact of even strong vocal work from Winstone, Hopkins, and Jolie. Cinematography is intermittently impressive in action sequences but the CG aesthetic has dated poorly. Novelty is moderate: the revisionist take on the heroic myth is a genuine creative choice, but the execution leans into blockbuster conventions. The ending sacrifices the poem's elegiac melancholy for a somewhat hollow action climax.