A dead-eyed fantasy dud wins a bloody streaming battle long after losing the war

One of the strangest cinematic detours of the modern era saw Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, Cast Away, and What Lies Beneath hit-maker Robert Zemeckis spend the better part of a decade living exclusively in the uncanny valley, where he delivered fantasy epic Beowulf sandwiched in between the festive frolics of The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol.

The sweeping adaptation of the Old English legend scored substantially stronger reviews than its performance-captured brethren, with Beowulf landing a 71 percent Rotten Tomatoes score compared to the 56 and 53 racked up by Tom Hanks and Jim Carrey’s star turns. However, it made the least money of the three by quite some distance after failing to crack $200 million at the box office, leading to the $150 million adventure failing to turn a profit.

15 years on from losing the war, the violent wartime tale of absolute power corrupting absolutely has swung its sword in the direction of the streaming charts, and it’s struck a hefty blow to finally win a battle. As per FlixPatrol, Beowulf has staked its claim for the kingdom on Starz’ global rankings, with a new generation of audiences discovering that the hard-hitting action-packed extravaganza isn’t all that bad.

Sure, the dead-eyed characters are a little off-putting, but when you’ve got Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright, and Brendan Gleeson among the ensemble to name but a very small few, it would be a lot harder to not provide at least flitting bursts of lavish, blockbuster-sized entertainment.