Beowulf (2007) is in my DVD collection and is also available on Netflix. The storyline is about Beowulf who arrives in a town plagued by a curse where a deity and her son ravage the land. When Beowulf fights the son and confronts the deity tough choices will be made that will determine his future and direction. This movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) and contains the voices of Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs),Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider),Ray Winstone (The Departed),Crispin Glover (Willard),Robin Wright (The Princess Bride) and John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire). The storyline for this is very good and contains some fantastic twists and turns. The animation is out of this world and looks very much like the actors used for the voices. The cast is very well selected and fit the characters and storyline to perfection. The action scenes are absolutely amazing, especially the depiction of the creatures and sorcery. The kill scenes and gore is also remarkable. The full circle of the storyline is excellent as is the absolute final scene. This is a bit underrated and is definitely a must see that I would score a 8.5/10.

The Olde English poem about the Norse adventure of warrior Beowulf who battles the creature Grendel and then later his mother gets the CGI treatment from director Robert Zemeckis.

To be fair CGI would give the film a better graphic representation of the poem but the CGI actors still have that dead eye visuals.

The film is set in the time of pagan gods but Christianity is in the fringes and King Hrothgar's (Anthony Hopkins) counsellor John Malkovich is an early convert. However the life of merriment in the kingdom is disturbed when Grendel attacks and the King offers a large bounty to the person who slays him but the King seems to harbour a dark secret which is wife (Robin Wright)is suspicious of.

Beowulf (Ray Winstone)takes up the challenge and then goes into battle with his mother (a sultry CGI Angelina Jolie) and it seems the mistakes of the past are about to repeat itself.

The film is an adaptation of the poem and the visuals add an atmosphere especially the action sequences but the CGI visuals of the actors are still not right. The mixture of different acting styles looks jarring such as mixing Welsh Hopkins, Cockney Winstone and American Malkovich.

The film is also portentous and actually starts to drag once the action and slaughter is finished as the screenplay had to expand the story in order for it to be turned into a feature length film.

With motion capture all the rage in Hollywood these days – blame Gollum – director Robert Zemeckis and his cronies have been keen to adapt the CGI technology for their own needs. BEOWULF follows hot on the heels of the same director's POLAR EXPRESS and a new adaptation of the age-old Anglo-Saxon poem about a hero battling a terrible monster.

As a keen follower of the literary Beowulf, I was eager to find out how the story had been adapted from the original. The good news is that this is the complete version, including flashbacks to Beowulf's swimming challenge and the climax with the dragon. The bad news is that the stuff with the dragon has been linked to the earlier Grendel story via a whole new subplot. Clearly a consequence of the desire to tie up loose ends in favour of neater storytelling, but I didn't think it was required.

Nevertheless, Neil Gaiman's script is above average in paying homage to the original. As for the mo-cap, I'm not so impressed. For me, this film looks like a cartoon, albeit an expensive, 3D-style cartoon. The look of flesh and hair is spot on, but the eyes are dead and soulless, which means even the hardest-working voice actors struggle to breathe life into their on-screen creations.

Zemeckis isn't a favourite director of mine. His emphasis is always on the superficial, and this film follows a straightforward action-adventure template by providing plenty of spectacle and not a lot of depth. Although it misses out the bit with the dragon, I found the Gerard Butler starrer, BEOWULF & GRENDEL, to be a much more atmospheric and engaging adaptation of the heroic poem.