The film has a confused feel to it, it doesn't know whether it's an X-rated late night art film or a family-friendly sword-and-sorcery epic, and ends up being an unfortunate mixture of the two. The innovative motion-capture CGI work acts as a thin veneer to cover a combination of gore (arms are ripped off, eyes are pierced, and people are literally torn limb from limb in graphic detail) and sexual metaphor (the obvious example being Grendel's Mother's seduction of Beowulf, while stroking his sword until the sword actually melts!) entirely unsuitable for a 12a rating, and gives the film an odd twist as for the first half hour I found myself thinking “gosh Antony Hopkins has put on weight” despite knowing that that isn't really Antony Hopkins. There are points when the computer images don't quite work, some of the female characters look as though they are made of plastic, while John Malkovitch's character has strangely dead eyes.

The plot, apparently adapted from scholarly debate, is just too weird for the mainstream audience it's trying to reach, while the action sequences are a hit-and-miss affair, some are effective, such as the fight between Beowulf and the sea monsters, and some are not, such as the fight with Grendel, which is perplexedly carried out while our hero is naked, for no real reason at all. As for casting, Ray Winston, although a good actor, is not really suitable for playing a Scandinavian warrior, unless Scandinavian warriors had cockney accents! Most of the other roles are interestingly and effectively cast, even Angelina Jolie, who seemed a strange choice to play the powerful, demonic Grendel's Mother but is surprisingly good, despite the gold paint.

It's a shame the film seems so uncertain of itself, because there are some sequences which are deliciously inventive and evocative. The mead hall sequences, so vividly evoked in the poem, come to life wonderfully; atmospherically suggests the sights, sounds and smells of the banquet. The dialogue between Grendel and his Mother is also beautifully rendered, spoken in some strange invented dialect and seen from the Mother's point of view, offering only glimpses of her in her true form, as she seems to be some sort of shape-shifter in this portrayal. Grendel himself is perfectly portrayed by Crispin Glover, a powerful, childlike performance coupled with a suitably gross character design, Grendel proves a very sympathetic monster.

I am unsure as to whether the attempts to reach a wider, more mainstream audience are due to the studio or the writers, but it's a decision which effectively ruined the film.