Beowulf 2007

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ultimately, Beowulf feels a lot like a video game blown up large: noise, action and funny walking intact. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: As far as cinematic mythology goes, this film flies only so high. And call me anti-Geat, but I was rooting for Crispin Glover's Grendel all along. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Their story arc brings some legitimate dramatic interest to Beowulf's climactic battle with the dragon. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Am I the only one who suspects that the intention of director Robert Zemeckis and writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary was satirical? Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: The film strives for mythological depth and epic breadth, but it's hard to get below the flat, shallow gloss over every surface. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: To the shock of cynics in the audience waiting for this film fantasy to be lame, Beowulf turns out to be exciting, fun and occasionally breathtaking. No question it's a popcorn flick, but it's cheesy only when it chooses to be. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Not all of it works -- and not all of it works the way the target audience of jacked-up young males might want it to -- but the movie is hugely provocative fun, and I'm pretty sure that's on purpose. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: If you want to understand what the pressure of Hollywood does to talent, if you want to experience where the movie business is heading in a big way, this benighted but likely remunerative film is the place to start. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: It's imaginative, and it has the barreling forward motion and lurching thrills of a Dark Ages theme park, even when it's exercising battle-worn cliches. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: An excellent showcase for the advantages of computer-generated animation. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Zemeckis employs the same motion-capture technology that he first used in The Polar Express, to slightly better effect. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's more dazzle than disaster, but the technical ambitions of Beowulf work too sporadically to be completely effective, while the screenplay adaptation of the classic story suffers from serious bouts of corn poison. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Beowulf is a solemnly gorgeous, at times borderline stolid piece of Tolkien-with-a-joystick mythology. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A bloody, silly-sexy action spectacle that shamelessly attempts to justify its excess by basing its violent bombast on the epic poem. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: I can't speak for the standard-issue version, but the souped-up extravaganza is one of those experiences that remind you of the magic that movies are capable of conjuring. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Those who remember the 3000 line epic from 8th grade English will be pleasantly surprised to learn they've scrapped the original plot altogether. Read more

Luke Y. Thompson, L.A. Weekly: Think you already know the epic tale? Not this version, you don't. Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: Beowulf is being released in standard 2-D and a non-Imax 3-D version, neither of which I've seen, and neither of which I would recommend as long as there is an opportunity for the sensory overload of Imax 3-D. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: The fight sequences -- on land, in mid-air or underwater -- fulfill your most ardent expectations for 3-D thrills. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Zemeckis has been seduced by the siren call of motion capture... Memo to Zemeckis: come back to earth! Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It is --quite literally -- an epic achievement. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Beowulf is as dazzling a feast for the eyes as the hungriest eyes can take. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Beowulf can be a lot of fun to watch -- at least in the 3-D IMAX version I saw. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Zemeckis has found the dark psychological underpinnings of this Dark Ages tale, and his version of it will endure even as the technology he used to tell it is replaced by something even more stunning. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Zemeckis, who blazed trails mixing live-action with animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, blazes not even a footpath here. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Regardless of the medium, this is an effectively brutal story of swords, sorcery, demons, and heroes, with an Oedipal hint or two thrown in for flavor. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Beowulf is ambitious, overbearing and hollow; it goes overboard to impress, yet it never feels truly inventive or imaginative. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's the Beowulf saga once again, and the movie becomes tiresome and trivial -- well done within the narrow limits of its aspiration but not worth the inflated effort. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Comic-Con geeks and cinephiles alike will gape at the resplendent imagery (but don ye specs, and see it in 3-D). Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The adaptation replaces the two-dimensional characters of the epic poem with more human, nuanced individuals. Read more

Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail: As it stands, Zemeckis's movie is only the beta version of the blockbuster of the future, ridden with imperfections that will presumably be corrected in later upgrades. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Heads roll, arteries gush and spleens spill across the IMAX screen in Beowulf, just as you'd expect in a screen adaptation of the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: You want to read Beowulf? Get the book, I'm not stopping you. You want bloody adventure with a brain, see the movie. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: The final, kinetic aerial battle scenes are eye-poppingly spectacular -- especially in the 3D IMAX-version under review -- but they come way too late to save the film. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: As envisioned by director Robert Zemeckis, Beowulf is a sight to behold: The landscape and visuals are powerfully sweeping, the action sequences exhilarating and kinetic. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: For all its visual sweep and propulsively violent action, this bloodthirsty rendition of the Old English epic can't overcome the disadvantage of being enacted by digital waxworks rather than flesh-and-blood Danes and demons. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: I say the story works, but I wish they'd teach these avatars to act. Read more