[jlagman]

Beowulf was by-and-large a gimmick film to showcase "new and exciting film technologies", which will probably go unused because for a CGI based-film, it's still very labour intensive. From my understanding of the extra content, they've just tried to expand on motion capture and CGI methods; wired set pieces and props for the film were all created and filmed with the actors using and interacting with them. Images were then rendered and "animated". While it looks kind of cool for a while, IMO the end result doesn't justify the possible production costs.

After you get past the visuals, you'll find that the screenplay and acting are pretty mediocre. It's sad that the Beowulf poem created the heroic journey archtype, but as a modern epic, it will fall into the oblivion of LotR, CoN, etc. film franchises.