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Beth and I caught Beowulf in Digital 3D this afternoon. Some other reviewers liked this version best, but personally I didn’t think it held a candle to IMAX. I also noticed that by the time the movie was over, my eyes were a little sore. Maybe the experience is better for users who don’t wear glasses. I don’t know.

It was also obvious that as good as digital animation has gotten, it still doesn’t hold a candle to real film. Beowulf was better than Final Fantasy, but still didn’t compare well to movies shot with real actors, even digital effect heavy movies like Star Wars I-III. Even more tellingly, Beowulf didn’t compare all that well to the old Harryhausen films: the monsters are better (Grendel was fabulous) but the humans are so much worse. I wonder how long it will be before we can finally render animatronic humans that are indistinguishable from real humans on the screen?