The story of Beowulf is one that has been told and retold many times over the centuries; most recently there was the 2005 film Beowulf & Grendel starring Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgard and Sarah Polley. Now Robert Zemeckis is giving us another interpretation of the epic Old English poem, based on a screenplay written by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman. The movie stars a number of big names including Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson, Robin Wright Penn and Crispin Glover, but here’s the thing: it’s animated. And not quite in the way that you might expect.

Zemeckis is re-using the same technology that he employed for the movie The Polar Express, motion capturing the actors and creating photorealistic renderings of their faces to the point where you have to ask — why even bother? It looks so much like live action, it might as well be live action. I suppose there are benefits to this method of production (it’s a lot easier for the actors, for one) but it seems strange that they would still use the likeness of the actors instead of modelling a completely new character. Zemeckis likes to work on the cutting edge and maybe he’s on to something here, I just don’t quite grasp its potential yet. The first Beowulf teaser trailer has gone online and there’s no doubt that it looks visually impressive. They still have to mask the characters partially in the shadows in order to fool you entirely though. Is it just me or was the 28 Days Later music a little out of place in this? Beowulf hits theatres on November 16th.