Perhaps you've taken notice of the Beowulf marketing siege currently coating area mini-storages and billboards, its cast of synthetic stars only slightly less off-putting than the dead-eyed, Christmas-train-riding childrenoids that populated Robert Zemeckis's last effort. The FXRant blog notes a number of striking similarities between its campaign and that of another CGI-heavy fantasy epic that's already proven its box office might:

[I]t's clear that they've been studying the ad campaign for "300" very carefully. Among many stylistic and clear similarities between each films' trailers, here are a few highlights:

· Both trailers have the lead, bearded, warrior hero, in closeup, loudly proclaiming that "THIS! IS! SPARTA!", or, "I! AM! BEOWULF!"

· Each trailer has an anachronistic guitar-riff-filled montage of violence, wrapped up with our warrior hero proclaiming something about "TONIGHT..." · And, most obviously, each trailer's graphics are rough, bold, blood red, and set against time-lapse clouds with lightning bursts.

Film marketers, of course, have never been above engaging in the sincerest form of flattery if it means drawing a few more fanboys and Spartan-lusting gays into the megaplex. And be prepared for yet more plagiarism in an upcoming spot aimed squarely at the female demo, craftily edited to K.T. Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" to make it seem as if the movie is about a gold-dipped Angelina Jolie having taken a job as the assistant to the haughty editor of a major fashion magazine.