I've held off on seeing Beowulf because I thought it couldn't possibly do justice to the original. It seems I was right.
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Hwæt!
28 Nov 2007 02:57 pm
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Comments (23)
Megan, you're not the target audience of this movie.
TFA:
The film's signal originality, and the occasion of its most grotesque travesty of a great poem, is its "vision" of what should have been the second and most terrifying monster: Grendel's mother, who dwells in the depths of a haunted pool. But that's no monster, that's Angelina Jolie--and, boy, swiche wenche was never ere now found in mere, tarn, lagoon, or hwaelsweg, let alone in the giant fishbowl dreamed up by our director. In light-hearted mood, medieval scholars debated such questions as this: "If you are to be married to a mermaid, which half do you want to be fish?" Zemeckis appears to have the implied problem all figured out, since Grendel's Mom has been most fecund in her many matings with, apparently, every king in town.
We can get all the swords-and-sandals we want in a plethora of modern movies (Gladiator, 300, etc.). But a CGI-enhanced view of Angelina Jolie that only Brad Pitt usually gets? Now that's maybe worth plunking down some money for.
I'll catch it on Netflix someday.
My one friend who saw the movie said it had "The most CGI ass I've ever seen" and went on to describe one (presumably unintentionally) hilarious quasi-naked fight scene.
I'm not sure if these count as pluses or minuses in your book, but liberalrob's comment above is making me lean more towards pluses in mine.
Incidentally, one of the commenters in the TNR review you linked to mentions the Michael Chrichton book "Easters of the Dead", which is probably my favorite take on the whole Beowulf thing.
Also, I think this blog needs 100% more Old English subject titles.
What exactly do you mean by, "the original"? A live performance by a skald chanting by firelight in a meadhall or that soulless commercial knockoff they put in that fancy schmancy "writing".
My one friend who saw the movie said it had "The most CGI ass I've ever seen" and went on to describe one (presumably unintentionally) hilarious quasi-naked fight scene. '
I'm sure it's just the way he's holding his spear...
I doubt you made it through the Cliff's Notes.
Njorl . . . hee! I almost wish I hadn't made you comment of the week already, so I could do it now . . .
c'mon Megan... don't tell me you also missed the point. It's a movie... made for entertaining people who throw money at it. Nothing more. That it taps into old myth is simply a point of departure.
Go. See. See if it makes you feel a certain way, or makes you curious about something...
If you hate it, at least hate it on it's own merits, after having seen it with your own eyes. I have seen movies like this fail spactacularly, but still be amusing years later if you forgive them for not working on every level.
Movies are not the same as books, and books are not the same as the spoken word, and spoken words are not the same as the song of a half-drunk sea-farer filling the minds of young shepards with tales of far off times.
When the world was young and great deeds could be done.
I think the movie would be more enjoyable if you haven't read the book (I can't vouch for how it reads in Old English). The whole seductress-monster-mom thing imposes a 20th century mindset on the ancient story, and it doesn't work too well.
The last scene, where Angelina's head and, er, upper torso bob in the sea like a weird weighted Weeble, is almost worth sitting through the whole thing.
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I saw it in IMAX 3-D and forget the story and everything else - it was INCREDIBLE. I had my jaw wide open for the first part of the film because it was so awesome. Now, the story was interesting enough to keep my attention - I don't claim it is the best story ever told - but it was good and with the IMAX 3D, the whole experience was awesome enough I want to see it again - and to want to recommend to everyone else to see it.
Posted by Disgusted Beyond Belief | November 28, 2007 3:05 PM