Beowulf, the dreary bête noire of English literature students, is given a surprisingly potent makeover by its co-writers Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction) and Neil Gaiman (Stardust). Here, in 6th-century Denmark, our dragon-slaying superhunk protagonist, deftly voiced by Ray Winstone, is recruited to destroy a local monster called Grendel (a beguiling Crispin Glover, speaking singsongy Anglo-Saxon prose). He embraces the task with gusto, yelling, during one blood-soaked orgiastic fury, I am ripper! Tearer! Slasher! I am the teeth of the night!”

And yet Beowulf is soon undone by his own arrogance, his greed, and a lusty encounter with Grendel’s impossibly curvaceous mother (Angelina Jolie).

Of course, this all unfolds in a lovingly created, yet entirely synthetic computer-generated, environment, and the success or failure of the project, for some, might hinge upon the ultimate credibility of this world – in some places the “synthespians” look like rubber-faced automatons, while in others the film raises insuperable issues about the nature of stardom (if the computerised Jolie is the same, but not quite, as Jolie in real life, why use Jolie at all, other than as brand value?).

Thankfully, however, the primal narrative that pulses through the movie is powerful enough to silence any formal concerns. The film, in classical terms, is about the purification of Beowulf. And his cathartic journey, from boorish egotist to self-lacerating Christ figure, is effortlessly compelling and, at times, moving.

Beowulf
12A, 114mins

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