No amount of CGI can make up for crappy storytelling.  The problem with CGI movies is not the CGI, but with the relaince upon special efects to hold the films together.  Beowulf, like 300 before it, was a boring film.  Even watching it in 3D, I started to get sleepy.  People aren't going to line up to watch video games on the big screen.  At least Beowulf didn't carry the deplorable political message of 300.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was very successful, in part because the books had a widespread fan base, but also because Peter Jackson knows how to tell a story visually and not make his films about the special effects.  There are many films, in fact, in which the CGI is not noticeable--films you might not expect used CGI, but were digitially enhance in terms of color, or where backgrounds, etc. were dropped in instead of the filmmakers' relying on matte paintings.

The fact is, however, that the imagination and creativity of the art directors has exceeded that of the stories that are told.  How many times can we watch scenes of endless murder without actual content?  Because Hollywood films are a business and are designed to make a profit, not to be genuinely interesting or original.