I’ve been looking forward to a good film adaptation of Beowulf for quite a long time, so when I heard Neil Gaiman was involved with this one, it really got my hopes up. Then the first trailer came out a few months ago, and I was disappointed to see that it was made using CGI similar to that used in The Polar Express several years ago.

The one thing that put me off from The Polar Express was that they were trying to create CG actors, and the technology just isn’t there yet. Cartoon characters, caricatures, creatures — sure, those have all been done superbly with CG, but rendering human beings, without all the subtle nuances and minute muscular undulations, just doesn’t look natural, and is extremely off-putting. I couldn’t even watch The Polar Express because of this.

I just saw some more footage on the SpikeTV Scream 2007 Awards, and it still looks really CG-ish. I really hope that the writing and story are able to carry this film, because it will be a chore just to sit through all the unnatural look and feel of the human characters.