Beowulf (2007)

The warrior Beowulf must fight and defeat the monster Grendel, who is terrorizing Denmark, and later, Grendel's Mother, who begins killing out of revenge.

Director:

Robert Zemeckis

Writers:

Neil Gaiman (screenplay), Roger Avary (screenplay)

Stars:

Ray Winstone, Crispin Glover, Angelina Jolie

3 wins & 17 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robin Wright	...	Wealthow (as Robin Wright-Penn)
Anthony Hopkins	...	Hrothgar
Paul Baker	...	Musician #1
John Bilezikjian	...	Musician #2
Rod D. Harbour	...	Musician #3
Brice Martin	...	Musician #4 (as Brice H. Martin)
Sonje Fortag	...	Gitte (as Sonja Fortag)
Sharisse Baker-Bernard	...	Hild
Charlotte Salt	...	Estrith
Julene Renee	...	Cille (as Julene Rennee)
Greg Ellis	...	Garmund
Rik Young	...	Eofor
Sebastian Roché	...	Wulfgar (as Sebastian Roche)
Leslie Zemeckis	...	Yrsa
John Malkovich	...	Unferth

Storyline

Set against the coming of Christianity, this is the story of the last hero: in 507, a monstrous troll wreaks havoc in the mead hall of Danish King Hrothgar (Sir Anthony Hopkins). He offers rewards for the death of Grendel (Crispin Glover), so Beowulf (Ray Winstone), a great and boastful Geat warrior, arrives with his thanes. Beowulf sets aside his armor and awaits the monster. A fierce battle ensues that leads to Beowolf's entering the watery lair of Grendel's Mother (Angelina Jolie), where a devil's bargain awaits. Beowulf returns to Herot, the castle, and becomes King. Jump ahead many years, and the sins of the father are visited upon Beowulf and his kingdom. The hero must face his weakness and be heroic once again. Is the age of demons over?

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Plot Keywords:

adult animation | beowulf character | king hrothgar character | 3 dimensional | character name as title | 

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Taglines:

Evil breeds pain.

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity

Details

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English Old English

Release Date:

16 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Beowulf: An IMAX 3D Experience

Filming Locations:

Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$27,515,871, 18 November 2007

Gross USA:

$82,280,579

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$196,393,745

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Shangri-La Entertainment, ImageMovers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around one hour and two minutes) Sir Anthony Hopkins (King Hrothgar) says, "Odin be praised." Hopkins played the Norse god Odin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Goofs

The singer in Beowulf's retinue sings about a whore from Iceland, but Iceland had no permanent population before 870-874 AD, and was certainly an unknown land with no human presence at all in 507 AD.

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Quotes

[first lines]
King Hrothgar: I want mead! Give me some mead, my queen!

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Alternate Versions

Director's Cut features violence and nudity cut from the theatrical version.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Hottest Non-Human Female Characters in Movies (2015)

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Soundtracks

A Hero Comes Home
Written and Produced by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri
Performed by Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel appears courtesy of Warner Bros. Records

User Reviews

To CGI or Not to CGI, that is the question?

I have read Beowulf a couple of times. It's great northern European mythology, and mandatory reading when you are young in my opinion (Along with Norse, Greek and Roman Mythology as well). And though the movie wants to re-write some of the epic, you will need to separate the Hollywood version from the beautiful measure of the original works. Being a work of CGI, you will also have to allow for the flaws of pure CGI work. Very stylized and beautifully colored, it is an epic adventure that elevated Zemeckis' previous work "The Polar Express" to a new level. Polar was beautifully modeled after Chris Van Allsburg illustrations for his book, but Zemeckis' adaptation to the story went a little over the top when it became a musical. Even though most of Beowulf's story line is answered here, it did make me pause and wonder:

Why didn't Robert Zemeckis just direct this thing in real life instead of virtual?

With the capabilities of dropping in CGI into real life action, this telling of the story could have had so much more of an impact if the expressions were more poignant. Look what he did with "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"? Zemeckis is fully capable of it. Also, to add to this, when you have CGI characters like Jacksons Gollum and King Kong to compare notes with, the modeling here just isn't up to snuff. I felt the entire movie came off like a gigantic "cut-scene" to a video game than a full featured animated project. I can only give this a little better than a good, hence the exclamation. I do this sadly. You really should see this in a theater, bigger than life. The dragon is excellent, the ugly v/s the beautiful is wild, the sequencing is uneven, though at the end it takes you on a great ride. Oh, and for you people that want to go see Angela Jolie nekkid? IT'S CGI!!! I've seen harder stuff on Fox networks! Seeing my wife and I saw this as a matinée, the crowd was on the sparse side and there was literally no kids present. I couldn't get a solid feeling from the audience though most people as they left seemed genuinely happy with their experience. I'm sure it was PG13'd because of the sequences with Angela, otherwise it would be a solid PG. I wouldn't suggest this for a kid under 8.