Beowulf (Ray Winstone) is a Nordic hero who travels to Denmark in order to rid the land of a vile humanoid demon known as Grendel (Crispin Glover). When he arrives, he greets the king, Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) and his beloved wife, Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn), and asks them to re-open the cursed hall so that his crew can attract the attention of Grendel and solve their problems once and for all. But not everyone is happy to see Beowulf, his companion Wulfgar (Sebastian Roché) and their fighters. Particularly, the king's magician, Unferth (John Malkovich), who has heard less than stellar tales of Beowulf.
Eventually, the enraged beast breaks into the mead hall and Beowulf fights him off. When Grendel makes it back to his home cave and dies in his mother's arms, she starts looking for a way to get revenge. Hrothgar exclaims that, while Beowulf has killed Grendel, it isn't until his mother is dead that the kingdom will be safe. So the hero goes off to the cave to find her and stop her once and for all. Expecting a hideous monster, Beowulf is shocked to find her in the visage of Angelina Jolie, and is easily seduced by the demon's beauty and promise of power and legendary remembrance. Beowulf returns to the castle claiming to have defeated Grendel's Mother, and as payment for his deed, Hrothgar proclaims Beowulf his successor and everything he owns (both his kingdom and his wife) will be Beowulf's upon Hrothgar's death. Hrothgar appears to have had a weight lifted from his shoulders when Beowulf proclaims the demon's death, and soon after declaring his successor, Hrothgar jumps out of the tower window and gets washed away to sea.
Fast forward many years to see Beowulf, Wulfgar, Wealthrow and Unferth have aged quite a bit, and Beowulf's legend has preceded him so that the mere mention of him on the battlefield causes the opposing force to turn back. But Beowulf is troubled and when the deal he made with Grendel's Mother comes back to haunt him, he will have to reveal aspects of his sordid past to those closest to him.
I have to say that Winstone, Glover, Jolie and Hopkins all did a great job portraying their characters. The voice-acting never felt phoned in and you could feel a lot of energy in their dialogue. Even their CG'ed visages portrayed a lot of emotion, but I'm not sure how much of that is their original acting, or the post-processing done by the CG animators.
The most noticeable aspect of this version of Beowulf would be its use of CG and rotoscoping. The movie was filmed with the actors going through the parts as if it were a live action film. But instead of just showing everything as it was filmed, the film was then processed in a computer, and the 3D models of the actors were animated based on the data in the film. While this makes for a visually stunning movie, there are times when aspects just seem off. Particularly, the lips don't seem to quite match up with the words and the eyes don't always seem to be looking at their intended targets.
Like I said, this movie doesn't follow the myth word for word. It deviates in quite a few places, but I'm pretty sure it is the most faithful of the Hollywood incarnations. If you're a fan of the story, you might want to check it out. If you are just looking for a good fantasy film, it could be worth your time, but unless you already have some interest in the film (be it the story, actors or animation), it can easily be passed up.
