Expectedly, there are large-scale, edge-of-the seat clashes and some classic savage scenes. There are other interesting touches and some quirky emotions. It's a philosophical play on what it means to be a warrior.

Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf is so rousingly entertaining that you'll feel guilty for not reading the epic poem all the way through when you were in ninth grade.

No doubt C.B. DeMille, another director with a knack for turning Hollywood stars into robots, would have been entranced.

...something of a noble failure, an attempt to harness Hollywood to access classic texts rather than comic book archetypes...in amongst the ruins, there’s the germ of what might have been a game-changing dive into turning great literature into great art.