What I loved most: Grendel rocks, beautiful scenery and set pieces

What I really hated: MoCap Stiffness on most characters

While most would regard this movie as an animated feature, to me, this is no more an animated feature than Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is one, or even the Richard Linklater efforts, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. The characters movements aren’t animated by an animator but captured into an environment. While Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly have animators drawing directly over each frame (an updated version of rotoscoping), Beowulf uses the current fad of Motion Capture (MoCap for short within the industry), which director Zemeckis employed in The Polar Express and (to a certain extent) Monster House, which he also produced. The same technology was used to give the penguins in Happy Feet proper dance moves. By using this technology, directors are able to have far more control on how the characters should move and, in essence, act within a given environment. They can also place the camera anywhere and move it any way they want to without costly reshoots, concerns about safety in stunts or environmental concerns and actor concerns. The movie, written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery, adapts the legendary and lengthy poem (over 1000 lines) that tells the tale of Beowulf and his battle with the creature, Grendel, as well as the consequences that follow. The stars lend their voice and facial appearances, which is rendered in a 3-D environment so realistic that it almost looks like the actors were there themselves. Ray Winstone in particular looks far better than in real life, like his old Will Scarlett (from the Robin of Sherwood TV series over 20 years ago) got beefed up even more and grew almost a foot taller. Angelina Jolie appears far more toned and with a tail, probably surpassing her real life figure as well. So, there is no real way to determine the quality of any of the actor’s performances here as the characters in the movie have different body actors (who wear those suits for Motion Capture). While Winstone does growl and bellow with the best of them (specifically recalling Gerard Butler in 300), the only real standout would be Grendel itself, thanks to a remarkable vocal performance by Crispin Glover coupled with a truly grotesque design of a creature that is both horrifying and sympathetic. It probably works best simply because it is the least realistically realized creature in the film (the other being a magnificent dragon). We could also have done with a bit more of the sea monsters. The rest of the human characters suffer from the usual stiffness in movement that seem to plague motion captured humans. Their movements can be smooth at times but there’s an oddness to it at the same time, which makes them look stiff. The hyper-real 3-D environment attempts to create 3-D visual effect (more for IMAX) and succeeds a fair bit, throwing the viewers into the middle of the scene or setting. The surround sound enhances the effect as well with solid results, and there are many opportunities for the movie to show off its technological advancements. The battle scenes are brutal visceral experiences almost (but not quite) on par with the savagery that was featured in a similar 300 earlier this year. The most eye-catching aspect of the movie is the production design of Doug Chiang and art direction by Greg Papalia that is just luscious eye candy. The environments and sets, with their lighting, are just amazingly rich in detail. If everything is created within the computer, how does a cinematographer work in this, or are those sets and scenery digitized reality (like in the Disney animated feature Dinosaur)? After all, the credits do include a digital set designer as well as a normal set designer. In all, it is a rousing adapted adventure that is quite a cinematic experience. The few highlights and gorgeous imagery make up for what would have been regarded as stilted performances if it weren’t a motion captured movie.

What I really hated: Plastic work.

I'm so mad at Robert Zemeckis. A supposedly great movie adapation turned out not-so-tasty because of the total use of CGI. I was puzzled, why would he want to introduce full CGI into the film ? Yes, when the movie begin, the movie's visual is sweet at first sight. After so long, you'll get tired of it. Most of the time the characters looked plastic and dull, which eventually provokes no emotions to the acting/story at all. But whatsoever, CGI was smartly used for explosions scenes and the final showdown was greatly, beautifully done. One downside: Isn't this movie an ancient poem ? I'm hearing many 'Damn's in the movie, that comes across as annoying.

What I loved most: The trailers?

What I really hated: The movie itself!

Perhaps it was the expectations built up from the rather promising trailers but alas, it was most disappointing.... yes, probably loads of efforts went into making the graphics as realistic as possible but it still cannot measure up to "real" actors / actresses anytime! Somehow, for a fantasy story, cant beat the all time favs like LOR, Narnia, Gladiator for storyline and effects. For an animation film, maybe it will bring some joy to gamers etc but I'll rather watch Toy Story, Prince of Eqypt, Ratatouille etc. even though the latter movies dont have better graphics. It disappoints because it is neither here nor there!

What I loved most: The CG fights

It is another so-called ancient movies like 300, troy and more. Now it features about Vikings. A guy called Beowulf ( Ray Winstone) goes to a land to slay a powerful dragon, Grendel ( Crispin Glover) and Grendel's mother ( Angelina Jolie) wants revenge on Beowulf. The story is simple and yet engrossing. The director, Robert Zemeckis move on from Polar Express to this animation Beowulf. While watching the trailers, I was confused about what I was seeing. It seemed realistic but after some scenes, I realised it was just animation. Beowulf used the motion of the real actors are captured on computer and is then put in the computer animation to make a photo-realistic movie. It is just amazing. The animation seems better than Polar express. It is co-written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. It is smart, cool and amazing. It could be all you are asking for. Beowulf and Gredel's mother are partially naked. That is also the drool of people who are watching this movie. Angelina Jolie, partially naked rising out of the water in gold paint. What do people want more. The violence is there too. Overall, it does make a good fantasy action movie. It does have the appeal too. Watching in cinema will increase the intense like fights and it is awesome to watch it in cinema, it is 3-D . Probaby a good movie to watch in November.