Well, now that I can SEE the box cover, I know why I was so shocked by the “intense footage” of Beowulf last night.  Netflix sent me the Director’s Cut, which I was wary of having not seen the theatrical cut. 

I suppose, at its core, Beowulf was just an experiment, another chance for Zemeckis and co. to play with the motion capture fully animated film making. 

I’ll be honest – I’ve never read Beowulf.  It wasn’t assigned reading in school.  The closest I have come to the story is watching ‘Eaters of the Dead’, the film version of the MIchael Crichton novel that tried to imagine “what if Beowulf was actually a true story?”.  I have to say, I found that a bit more interesting than the straight forward telling of the story. 

Yes, the animation and style were mesmerizing.  In the end though, I was bored.  There are really no twists or turns in Beowulf.  It wasn’t going to catch me by surprise (though the amount of naked man-butt did!  what the heck!). 

In the end,  I was left with sort of a “eh?” feeling.  The movie was just okay.  It was a cool idea.  I’m curious to see where this kind of movie making goes.  I’m sure it looks gorgeous on HD.  But just because you can bring the pretty does not mean you should slack on the characterization.  And really, Beowulf is not a likable character.  He’s kind of a moron. 

So, less disturbing than Polar Express, but it left no impression on me.