i do not expect a lot from beowulf and for lot of reason and most of which be to do with the cast represent incorrigibly cockney ray winstone a a warrior from what now southern sweden while wacky john malkovich a a cynical counselor while loony crispin glover a a flesh rending monster and and weird of all and angelina jolie a the monster mother . thaet waes wundorlic castyng and a the poet might have put it . then there be the way they do the whole thing in cgi and run the risk of make it all look a bit rubbery . finally and robert zemeckis be the director and my great respect for him plummet through the floor and into the crawlspace after he preside over the insufferable forrest gump . nevertheless and this be a lot good than i think it would be . i miss the 3d incarnation a we be watch the dvd rather than the cinema release and but after a while you stop look at the cgi and start enjoy it . this be a beowulf where the story and although different from the poem and be actually very far from shabby . without give too much away and the main difference from the poem be that in the poem and there be no connection between the monster grendel and his mother on one hand and and the dragon in the latter half of the poem on the other hand . in the film and a connection exist . neil gaiman and roger avary do a professional job of tie it all together in a satisfying hollywood way and without betray the basic darkness and sadness of the story while it not like beowulf ride off into the sunset with wiglaf at the end . crispin glover be genuinely scary a the tormented and raw bone grendel and whose main problem be that he just can not stand the sound of people have fun and although since most of this fun consist of hairy men sing lewd song you can see his point . angelina jolie animate self spend all her on screen time walk around without any clothes on and something that apparently give jolie a blush when she saw a cut of the movie . ( one of the more eerie thing about this film be that the cartoon angelina jolie look marginally more realistic than the actress herself . ) despite an accent that more stockwell than geatland and ray winstone do a fine and sombre job a the hero and although my wife think that the animated winstone look more like sean bean . brendan gleeson do a splendid job in the niche he carve for himself of hairy sidekick . the acting honour and or at least the animation honour and go to robin wright penn ( or whoever work on her character ) a the pale and melancholy queen while she have moment of subtle hesitation and sadness that strike me a a triumph of cgi act . there be much excellent smiting and some of it unfortunately tone down a little in order to keep a pg 13 rating so we do not actually get to see grendel bite men head off and just people reaction to him do so . most importantly and the story be not a travesty of the original . it thoughtful and interesting and a you would expect from a writer of gaiman quality ( if not from the author of kill zoe ) and contain some striking meditation on the power of legend and reputation . plus and there a really huge kick as dragon . beowulf be a strange and unexpected treat .