Critical Consensus: Beowulf is Certified Fresh; Magorium Short on Magic; Cholera is Under the Weather

idle one kenobi

Crispin Glover as Grendel in Beowolf??? Now im definately gonna see this flick!

Crispin Glover is awsome, and underused as an actor.

He would make a perfect Riddler, in a Nolan style Batman sequel.

Nov 15 - 05:02 PM

Joey Chid

beowulf is gonna suck more then the mad max series and titanic did. :P

Nov 15 - 06:37 PM

Jen Yamato

Hmm...considering some RT staffers saw Titanic more than once in the theaters (in one day), what kind of "failure" would that be?

Nov 15 - 07:16 PM

Paul Andersen

KillerMonkey is either trolling or making some kind of joke. I just don't get the joke.

Nov 15 - 08:18 PM

Ian W

I'm not so excited about Beowulf. From the previews the animation looks kind of hokey, and I hate that Jolie is playing Grendel's mother. Yeah, I guess its the complete bastardization of the poem that really turns me off from this film.
Crispin Glover is pretty sweet though.

Nov 15 - 08:53 PM

Richard Blascock

I saw Beowulf tonight and it was....okay. Not great. It felt too long, although both my wife and I were surprised that it was less than two hours. Neither of us is a fan of the `animation' (I know Zemeckis hates that term). I just didn't connect with the characters the same way I would with real people. The 3-D was cool, though, but I stopped noticing about halfway through. Don't know if that's good or bad.

Nov 15 - 11:05 PM

Jasper Oosterveld

I want to see beowulf in Imax, sounds amazing :)

Nov 16 - 12:35 AM

John Handem

Just saw Beowulf tonight and i totally disagree with the poster above. I was completely blown away by the performances and the acting. Beowulf's character seemed dull in the trailers but is charismatic as Leonidas on Steroids in the film itself, this thing is absolute gold and perhaps my favorite of the year above 3:10 to Yuma and American Gangster!

Nov 16 - 02:53 AM

Joel Feliciano

looks like Beowulf will be divided between those who dig the animation or the one's who don't.

Nov 16 - 05:09 AM

Curtis Jensen

I saw Beowulf in IMAX 3D on Tuesday and was surprised by how good it is. Throughly entertaining popcorn fare. The action sequences are thrilling, particularly in 3D. Not sure if it would be as fun in 2D.

The "animated" humans are still a little bit creepy and inhuman and don't emote naturalistically, there's just something about the subtlety of the human face and muscles this technology misses. They are so much better than Polar Express which was just flat out creepy and weird. On thing that we do get from the animation is that we're treated to "camera" moves and viewpoints that would be almost impossible if this had been shot on a sound stage and Ray Winstone just plain isn't as sexy as Beowulf.

Nov 16 - 09:47 AM

anonymous anonymous

I'm pretty surprised at how many good reviews Beowulf has got...although many of them seem to be saying that it's worth seeing just for the 3D graphics that make up for everything else being pretty weak. I have a hard time getting excited about it.

Anyone else catch the IMDB daily thing - they made it sound like Magorium is getting good reviews when it's clearly not: "Critics find much to be delighted about in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium..."

That title reminds me of the simpsons reference "The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel" starring Troy McClure.

Nov 16 - 03:21 PM

Someone Somewhere

Beowulf was absolutely atrocious.

I liked the CGI though.

Nov 17 - 08:20 PM

Victoria Leduc

Hooray for the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT reference!

Nov 18 - 02:17 AM

Big Brother

Meh, seemed like another Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to me, All style and no substance. When will producers learn that they don't need to "spruce up" a story that's stood the test of time for 1,500 years. It's not like your average viewer has been inundated with this story like say the Robin Hood legend which requires that you take another approach. The 13th Warrior did a far better job of telling this tale without even directly referencing Beowulf.

Nov 18 - 08:19 AM