For the first fifteen minutes, you’re left with an eerie feeling of something not being right with the actors. After you figure out that the film has the actors’ faces mapped and worked on in CGI, you heave a sigh of relief. Then you start wondering why the director has desperately squeezed in 1000 pages of ancient Anglo-Saxon manuscript into a tiny 2-hour movie, not giving the action enough time to work its magic on you. Don’t expect Beowulf to be earth-shattering good.

The story is based on the first Anglo-Saxon piece of literature ever written – the legend of warrior king Beowulf (Winstone), who works for the corrupt king Hrothgar. When the monster Grendel attacks Hrothgar’s men, Beowulf slays him in single-handed combat. To seek revenge, Grendel’s mother (Jolie) seduces Beowulf and drags him into the depths of her watery lair. Armed with a magical sword-trumpet sort of thing, Beowulf must defeat her and a fiery dragon to protect Hrothgar’s kingdom and his people.

The story may not sound that great, but trust director Zemeckis to weave action into every scene to keep the pace alive – but that’s also where the problem is, there’s too much action. So when an enemy has to be defeated, Beowulf deals a blink-and-you-miss blow and you’re left wondering what just happened. Jolie fans, however, will revel in the amount of time spent on the slow seduction scene – she takes about 14 minutes to emerge from the water! Yawn!

Scriptwise the movie is not a marvel. If King Leonidas got to bellow ‘This is Sparta!’ in 300, here Beowulf screams out ‘I am Beowulf’ about 70 times. What you must watch the movie for is the CGI effects. Every little strand of hair, flame of fire and drop of gold is recreated beautifully. If only the 200-member team at SPI special effects could put some expressions in the eyes, the animation would be perfect!

Watch at your own risk!