First of all 3D is not a gimmick - without it this type of movie goes straight to XBox without a cinematic release. While Beowulf is just another Lord of the Rings wannabe, neither true to the source material nor actually a film - this is what the next few years hold.
Overall the movie is great entertainment. There is a neat enough plot, the effects are fairly spectacular. And it probably hangs together a bit better than 300. It doesn't have the finesse of Sin City - and 3D cannot cover the usual Hollywood film weaknesses. But at no point does it let up.
We now have the three directions that all other blockbusters will go. CGI as realisation (Lord of the Rings, Transformers), CGI as style maker (Sin City, 300) and CGI as everything (Beowulf, Final Fantasy). There doesn't seem to be room for using CGI in just a few scenes anymore. No room for anything else.
Overall the movie is great entertainment. There is a neat enough plot, the effects are fairly spectacular. And it probably hangs together a bit better than 300. It doesn't have the finesse of Sin City - and 3D cannot cover the usual Hollywood film weaknesses. But at no point does it let up.
We now have the three directions that all other blockbusters will go. CGI as realisation (Lord of the Rings, Transformers), CGI as style maker (Sin City, 300) and CGI as everything (Beowulf, Final Fantasy). There doesn't seem to be room for using CGI in just a few scenes anymore. No room for anything else.