The Shootout blog asked recently whether it's worth it to see a movie in a theater anymore, when at-home viewing comes reasonably close to replicating the big-screen experience. And a few weeks ago, I wrote about films that could survive the transition to downloadable formats.

But unless you have 3D Imax in your living room (and if you do, I'm coming over), there's no way to get the full advantage of Beowulf without paying the tariff at the local multiplex and plunking those giant glasses on your head.

Director Robert Zemeckis, employing the same motion capture technique he used in The Polar Express, is certainly onto something. The way to ensure that people continue to visit movie theaters is to provide something they can't get at home – spectacle.

The super-sized classics, like Lawrence of Arabia, Fantasia, Star Wars, Gone with the Wind and 2001: A Space Odyssey, hold up well enough in a domestic setting. But full-grown, they're simply awesome, and not just because they amaze. They go beyond the "wow" factor to reach the psyche.

Beowulf certainly amazes. But it would die in captivity. Once the thrill of sound and fury is removed - and it's a considerable thrill - there isn't all that much left. Unlike other "big" non-live-action films, Beauty and the Beast, for example, or The Incredibles, Beowulf aims for the eyes and ears, rather than the gut and the heart.

Characters show their emotions by tilting their heads rather than arranging their features; close-up substitutes for connection. The gushing blood looks more like drops of mercury than anything that ever ran through human veins. And the film has an improbable coyness – a scene in which Beowulf strips naked to battle Grendel might be an homage to the opening sequence in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Beowulf makes you gasp, wince, marvel. But it doesn't make you care.

Read more about Beowulf on Monsterfest.