Over break I saw a bunch of movies. A friend really wanted to see Beowulf. You may direct your chortles at him. Since we’re all busy, I’ll try and make my comments on Beowulf concise (spoiler alert):

• I didn’t know it was animated or in 3D before I saw it. Am I oblivious, or did they downplay those aspects of the film in the marketing?
• All I could think of during the long scene where Beowulf fights naked is the scene in the Simpsons movie where Bart skateboards naked. I don’t think it’s good when a movie is unintentionally funny too often. I also think that digitally rendered genitals were not going to upset anyone in the audience given all the unbelievable violence and gore. (Though I can’t speak for the ratings board.)
• Some of the 3D animation combined with the 3D viewing was amazing. Especially the shots from the ground perspective.
• And while there were moments where certain details of the people were rendered amazingly, the uncanny valley still reigns supreme. That said, while there were some faces that looked like WOW characters at times, there were tiny flashes once-in-awhile where I could see that we might someday get out of the valley. John Malkovich’s character was the exception of course since he looks kind of uncanny in real life too.
• All in all, quite not good.