"I am Beowulf!" With those oft-repeated words, a legendary hero has been reborn for a new generation in Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf. In the film, which uses motion capture technology, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Angelina Jolie, and more household names bring the classic tale of a hero and his monsters to life in a whole new way. Beowulf is a story that has been told for centuries, passed down from campfires to English Lit classes. By my count, I had to read the damn thing three times through high school and college for different courses. It's an old stand-by and often met with a lot of eye rolling from poor high school students. But can this classic tale find new life through new technology? And will audiences who seem to gorge on fantasy action (did you see how much 300 made?) be interested in what's essentially one of the most violent cartoons ever made?

It's no exaggeration to say that Robert Zemeckis'Beowulf is one of the most amazing technical achievements of the new millennium. Zemeckis pioneered the new era of motion capture technology with The Polar Express, but he has come lightyears in just the last few years. As a visual experience, Beowulf is to The Polar Express what The Lion King is to Snow White - it may be the same technology, but everything looks a little more refined. It's not just that many of the faces have finally been detailed to the point where they don't look like mannequins (although there's still some work to do in that department, especially with the women). It's the way Beowulf uses space that will blow your mind's eye. In every battle sequence and every mead hall party, you get the actual feeling of three-dimensional space for the film's characters. Even the greatest Pixar movies typically feel like a two-dimensional experience, but Zemeckis has crossed that threshold where he can use motion capture to create something that feels like it has depth. It's a technological advancement that deserves a special Oscar and something that makes Beowulf worth seeing by itself.

Even with that praise, Beowulf merits a cautious recommendation. The connective tissue between the fight sequences is paper thin. Beowulf was never a great character study and, partially because of the use of motion capture, the actual people in this tale come off as wooden, never once being effective emotionally. Winstone does particularly good work as the title character and Jolie looks the most like herself (perhaps because she's so beautiful in real life that it sometimes feels like she's created by a machine), but most of the remaining cast members feel buried under the visual effects. And some of the dialogue scenes, particularly the ones with Robin Wright Penn (through no fault of that great actress), feel stilted and forced, like a community theatre group reinterpreting Shakespeare.

The passion in Beowulf comes when everyone shuts up and starts fighting. Not only are the battle sequences beautiful to look at because of their staging, but the monster design in Beowulf is riveting. From sea monsters to dragons, the villains of Beowulf steal the show. Just try and take your eyes off Grendel. The legendary creature has been stunningly designed as a cross between Gollum from LOTR and The Abominable Snowman if he had been burned alive for a little while. Even that unusual description doesn't do Grendy justice. You have to see him. Like a lot of Beowulf, he's visually fascinating. When the final battle kicks in to gear and you shake the cobwebs off of the dialogue scenes that passed before, you won't care that the characters in Beowulf are two-dimensional. Everything else looks so 3-D.