Are you looking for an action packed movie with epic battles, dragons, demons, gore, busty babes and Angelina Jolie all wrapped into one neat little package?

Are you looking for a movie like “Lord of the Rings” or “Conan the Barbarian?” Guys, leave your girlfriend at home and break out the fake swords and Viking helmets because Beowulf is out in theatres.

The story is based on the popular poem “Beowulf.” A monster named Grendel terrorizes a village, and realizing that no one in town can defeat the monster, the king of the village seeks a great warrior named Beowulf to slay the monster. Beowulf also has to defeat Grendel’s mother and an unnamed dragon. The movie only slightly deviates from the original poem to make the movie more congruent and action packed.

The story of the movie is nothing new or unique. The backbone of the movie is not the story but the graphics behind the scenes. The action scenes really captured the intensity in the fighting, and the audience really gets immersed in the battle. For example, when Beowulf and Grendel are fighting and the blood and limbs are flying everywhere, you really get a feel of the action at its most intense moments. Or when Beowulf enters a cave, the animation really captures the fear and anxiety Beowulf feels because a monster is lurking in the darkness ready to attack at any moment.

The animation was also very accurate in the gruesome imagery of the movie. There is a scene in the movie where Grendel rips a soldier in half and the detail on the bone and blood was amazing. Scenes like those really make you cringe, and the fact that it’s in 3-D only makes the scenes more realistic. So, when the monster throws a severed leg at the screen it really makes the audience try to get out of the way.

In fact, the beautiful imagery is the only saving grace of the movie. The acting doesn’t really stand out, and it tends to get boring when too much dialogue happens between characters.

In the movie, the characters and the scenery were beautifully rendered. You can really recognize that Anthony Hopkins plays the King and that Angelina Jolie is Angelina Jolie. The scenery was also equally beautiful. You really get a feel for the Nordic lifestyle and the feudal society that these people lived in.

I recommend this movie to all those people out there who want to let their inner male out. Whether you’re the type of guy who likes action and violence and miss these types of movies in this day and age or if you’re a geek and you want to see a movie like “Lord of the Rings” and enjoy a good story and pretend like it’s a role-playing game. Gather a group of your male friends and enjoy a movie full of violence, gore and Angelina Jolie.

Charles Weinstein can be reached at [email protected]