by Lisa Hemsley

Created on: July 15, 2010   Last Updated: July 16, 2010

The cover of the DVD says that the film stars Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich and Angelina Jolie, but upon watching the film none of these people were recognisable.

The film starts off with an old Greek town being attacked by a monster, who we later find out to be the son of the king after he had a one night stand with a weird devil woman. He kills all who get in his way. Beowulf, voiced by Ray Winstone, (I will explain later why I am saying voiced by) turns up in the village as he has heard about the monster and he says he will kill it.

He prepared for battle by stripping off to nothing and lying in wait for it. When the monster appears he fights him and as he is hurt the monster becomes smaller. Finally the monster is captured but manages to escape by pulling his arm off. The monster returns to his lair where his mother is upset and promises she will get revenge on Beowulf and the monster dies.

Beowulf goes to find the monsters body but whilst he is there he meets the monsters mother, voiced by Angelina Jolie. Beowulf gets seduced by her and finally when he returns to the village with the monsters head he becomes king.

He starts his reign but then we move on to many years later when another monster turns up to wreak havoc on the town, can Beowulf kill and destroy this monster or will he end up dead?

Well, I spent the first 10 minutes of this film trying to work it out. The characters looked real, but when they moved or said something they did not look right, me and my hubby then finally worked out that it was all done with CGI. When Beowulf arrived I had to laugh, because there was this strapping man with a well toned body walking around, but with the voice of Ray Winstone, it just did not fit. The other characters were unrecognisable apart from their voices.

The only character which resembled themselves was Angelina Jolie who voiced the monster's mother. She had similar facial characteristics and we could easily tell who it was meant to be.

The monster looked great and very realistic in CGI as it blended into the rest of the CGI very well. I think the monster was the most real looking person in the whole of the film. The fighting scenes between the monster and the towns people was good and action packed, if not very gruesome at times. I feel that this would have fitted well with CGI being added to a live action film and not too many would have noticed a great difference between the shots.

The story was good and interesting and could have been made so much better if real people had been used in the film and just CGI for the monsters. I cannot see why they chose to make the film in this way and spoil it.

The DVD which we have does not have any bonus material which was a blessing as we would not have taken the time to watch this anyway.

The film was made in 2007 and released by Warner Brothers Pictures. It was produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis.

The film has a running time of 109 minutes and has a certificate of 12 which I feel is a little too young. The scenes where the monster is killing and eating people is very brutal and I feel this film should not be watched by those under 15 years of age.

I am undecided whether to recommend this film or not as the basic principle and the story was good but the whole film would have benefited by the use of real actors. I mean if they wanted the lead character to look like Russell Crowe or Sean Bean then why didn't they just cast him and save so much money by shooting it with live people, instead of making a slight mockery of the film making it all in CGI.

Watch with an open mind and get it for a bargain price like I did.

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