I. Have. Watched. Beowulf!

I’m not a big theater fan, but I am a Neil Gaiman follower, so I wanted to see the new film he cowrote. And I was pleased a friend liked it, so I was pumped to see it. Jill didn’t want to see it, so when I had yesterday off and she didn’t, I headed to the theater.

Now I’m no fan of the theater – I knew regular tix were $10, but $8 for a matinee? Plus $2.50 for 3D? Yet another reason I wait for most flicks to hit DVD or HBO (BTW, Eragon, which I also watched yesterday, was only worth watching at home). But I will say that watching a big action movie on the big screen in 3d was pretty cool.

The animation has progressed from the last film made that way, and I found that it didn’t matter, as it was most important the characters integrated with what ordinarily would always be CG (the dragon in Beowulf was much more real to me than the dragon in Eragon). From what I remembered from high school, the story was basically the same, but the motivation for Beowulf’s actions was easier to understand. And the action sequences were great, particularly the last one vs. the dragon.

The 3D integrated very well, mostly it seemed used during shot positions that could have been different. A couple times it was focused on, but never to the detriment of the story. And it was nice to see the trailer for Coraline in 3D (I’m really looking forward to that, not so much this).

Overall, I enjoyed it (but I really liked Stardust, too, so your mileage may vary).