Heads roll, arteries gush, and spleens spill across the big screen in Beowulf, just as you'd expect in a movie translated from the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language.

A lot of people tend to shrug it off after having it shoved down their throats back in high school.

Having said that, there's some great action shots which are a marvel to watch.

If that doesn't work, you can always take a course where they make you read the book.

Playing more like a video game than Anglo-Saxon poem-to-big-screen, Beowulf is sure to excite teenagers and completely disappoint English majors.

Using the same performance-capture effect he used in Polar Express, Robert Zemeckis lures us into a world of waxy-faced actors with nothing to say.

It's violent, sexy, and -- oh yeah -- laughably bad.

Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis, using the motion-capture animation technology he created for the film The Polar Express about two years ago, has now given his many skills to create a movie that looks unlike anything we've ever seen.

He has also given the classic epic poem a face-lift for modern audiences.

It's a great story. Beowulf is a soulfully spectacular medieval monster flick.

If you can, see this in 3-D at an IMAX Theater.