Movie · 2007 · Adventure, Action, Animation · 1h 55m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 3.0/10 (182.2K ratings)
Face your demons.
Overview
A 6th-century Scandinavian warrior named Beowulf embarks on a mission to slay the man-like ogre, Grendel.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.0/10
IMDb: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Metacritic: 59
TMDB: 5.9/10
Director
Robert Zemeckis
Production
Shangri-La Entertainment, ImageMovers
Cast
Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, Paul Baker, John Bilezikjian, Rod D. Harbour, Sonje Fortag, Sharisse Baker-Bernard, Charlotte Salt, Julene Renee, Greg Ellis, Rik Young, Sebastian Roché, Leslie Zemeckis, Woody Schultz
Curator Review
Verdict
A bold, weird, and often entertaining fantasy experiment with a strong cast, pulpy energy, and a knowingly lurid take on the legend. It’s worth watching if you’re curious about early motion-capture spectacle or enjoy glossy, overcooked mythmaking, but the uncanny visuals and uneven tone are major hurdles.
Best for
fans of dark fantasy and monster-slaying epics
viewers interested in early motion-capture animation
people who enjoy campy, horny, high-gloss genre excess
Robert Zemeckis completists
audiences who like myth retellings with a pulpy edge
Skip if
uncanny CGI or motion-capture faces bother you
you want a reverent adaptation of the source material
you prefer grounded historical adventure
you’re looking for subtle character writing over spectacle
you have little patience for tonal camp
Overview
Beowulf is one of those big-studio gambles that feels more interesting than polished. It takes an ancient epic and turns it into a sweaty, violent, aggressively unholy fantasy movie, with enough swagger and absurdity to make the whole thing memorable even when it’s awkward. The cast helps enormously, and the film’s commitment to excess gives it a strange, durable personality.
Worth noting
The problem is that the technology is forever working against the material. The motion-capture imagery can be distracting, sometimes eerie, sometimes flat-out uncanny, and that keeps the movie from fully landing as either animation or live-action spectacle. But if you can accept it as a high-budget fever dream rather than a prestige fantasy, there’s real entertainment in its grotesque energy.
Bottom line
It’s best approached as a curiosity with ambition: a mythic action film that wants to be raunchy, operatic, and myth-busting all at once. That combination won’t work for everyone, but for viewers open to a messy swing, it has enough invention and visual audacity to justify the ride.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Bethany (0.5★) · 1354 likes
my ex made me watch this absolute TRASH in a shitty motel on our one year anniversary and that's how our relationship ended :)
Patrick Willems (2.5★) · 878 likes
Great script, great cast, if only it didn't all look like a video game cut scene
genevieve (4★) · 664 likes
it’s honestly rude that i don’t get to see his dick
Josh Lewis (3★) · 481 likes
So sick that Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman wrote the Excalibur of grotesque, uncanny dark fantasy monster fighting PlayStation cut scene cinema and Robert Zemeckis's central contribution is not just the graphically violent and horny mocap CG animation that makes it look like Zack Snyder's Shrek but also filling it with Austin Powers dick hiding gags. A movie designed in a lab to get 3 stars out of Roger Ebert by distracting him into writing multiple paragraphs about Angelina Jolie. For good or ill, no one cay say for sure, never again will class="h-100"50m be put into character designs by a senior VeggieTales animator.