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I used to hate the classic poem, "Beowulf," when I was in high school. Our English literature teacher not only forced us to read it but also insisted we memorize parts of the epic, which by the way, is 3,000 lines long.

Written around 700 A.D. and composed in ye olde English with broken narrative and unexplained time lapses, "Beowulf" was hard to comprehend until I came upon J. R. R. Tolkien's masterful essay called "Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics."

Tolkien explained that "Beowulf" was not about a heroic figure but a tale of a man who inevitably met his tragic end because of hubris and fatalistic human flaws. The filmmakers of the new "Beowulf" film improved on Tolkien's theory and created a three-act story arch structure which made the feature more palatable.

"Beowulf," the movie, is blessed with many heroes. First, the stellar writing duo of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. Gaiman, the comic book god who is listed in the Dictionary of Literacy Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and Avary (the almost-forgotten "other" writer of the influential flick, "Pulp Fiction") devoured every imaginable translation of the poem. The result is a script that explains the protagonist's rise to power and his ultimate downfall.

The other hero of the film is director Robert Zemeckis and his usage of "performance capture" technique. When I first heard he was going to tell the classic tale by using the same format he almost perfected in "The Polar Express," I was a bit suspicious.

Why would Zemeckis subject his actors to wearing computerized blue dots performing in front of a blue screen? Why couldn't he just create a live-action version of the poem?

But after watching "Beowulf," I understand Zemeckis' decision. The character Beowulf is larger than life, literally (he's a six-foot-six Christ-like figure), and no actor, living or dead, can capture the character as effectively as Zemeckis envisioned.

Ray Winstone ("Sexy Beast") delivers a soaring performance as Beowulf, a young warrior, who rescues a Danish kingdom ruled by King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) from the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover).

Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm which sends the creature retreating to his mother's lair to die. His avenging mother, played by Angelina Jolie, attacks Hrothgar's warriors. It's now up to Beowulf to confront the mother and bring a satisfying resolution to the kingdom.

"Beowulf," the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language, is given a modernized take through

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