Happy Turkey Day! Also, Beowulf.
Happy Thanksgiving, all! I hope you were able to spend it with people you're thankful for. (and if there was delicious food involved, so much the better!)
I know I had plenty of both: zinjadu's parents kindly took in nekokoban and I again this year, along with coramegan. There was a fantastic home-cooked meal -- turkey, potatoes, corn, home-made rolls, and two, count 'em, TWO pies!. So much yum. Then we watched Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill" (I hadn't seen it! He's hysterical!) while coramegan took a nap. After that, we all headed down to Pacific Place to see Beowulf.
I had tried to be hopeful going into this movie. I had heard some rather negative reviews, but I figured, hey, it's Neil Gaiman and Robert Zemeckis, I'll trust them if nothing else. And now, having seen the movie, I feel I was right to do so.
Let me say right up front that if you are a purist about the poem, and wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than an exact and entirely faithful adaptation... you might want to give this a miss. Otherwise...
I read Beowulf back in AP English, senior year of high school, and aside from a strong feeling of, "oh, so this is what Tolkien was going for", quite enjoyed it, for what it was. It is, after all, the oldest story in the English language: it would be unfair to hold it to modern standards of story-telling style and structure: it is what it is, and you have to take it or leave it.
I feel much the same way about the movie: it's a 2007 Hollywood epic film, and must be taken for what it is. It is not a word-for-word adaptation of the poem; the plot has been altered to make the story more linear; the emphasis is more on Beowulf as a character and less on his heroic deeds (though the heroic monster-slaying is still there, in full-color CG 3D glory).
I feel that giving the screenplay to Neil Gaiman to write was a very good move, because Gaiman is all about adapting, updating, patchworking, and reinventing old myths and legends and tales (see American Gods, Sandman, and quite a lot else) while still remaining respectful of the source material. He obviously has a lot of respect for the myths and legends he makes his stories from, so you know that even if he changes things, you know he did so in full knowledge of what he was doing, instead of gutting the poem and tacking on more nudity and violence cos he thinks it'd sell.
For instance,probably the biggest change to the story is that in the movie, Grendel's mother is a shapeshifter who can take a (beautiful) semi-human form. Grendel, we learn, is her son by Hrothgar, and after Beowulf slays that son, she wants him to give her another. Beowulf, instead of killing her, is seduced by her, and their son is the dragon that attackes Beowulf's kingdom those many years later. Obviously this is a big departure from the poem, but for some reason I found I didn't mind. Maybe this is just my fannishness talking, but I felt like Gaiman didn't make the changes to the story because he thought that the poem was bad and he could write it better; but rather, so that he could tell a story that would work better as a movie, aimed at a modern audience. That was the impression I got, at least. The poem doesn't really fit into the Hollywood narrative, which is all about cause and effect relationships which propel the plot along, and Gaiman's script flows in that way. It's not trite or boring or overly-predictable, but it is in some ways comfortingly familiar. Things hold together and lead into one another in a way that makes sense and all just seems to work, and that's something we come to expect from Hollywood movies, even if we don't realize it. So anyway, even with all the changes, I was okay with it.
All right, enough about the story. Now for the look of the thing! The animation is, for the most part, lovely, if not always consistent; while the main characters, particularly Beowulf and Wealthow, are beautifully detailed and rendered, much of the background characters look rather phoned in. Now, I'm willing to give movies a lot of leeway when it comes to graphics, because God knows that stuff is difficult, way beyond me, and I have no idea how much cost or effort went into animating the movie, but I'm gonna guess it was a lot. So the quality of the CG wasn't a huge issue for me, although your mileage may vary depending upon how much this sort of thing affects your enjoyment of a film.
Also: I keep forgetting that Angelina Jolie can act, too, in addition to being smokin' hot. And props to the movie for giving us equal opportunity fanservice: you get naked Grendel-mommy AND naked Beowulf. I approve (I just wish they'd advertised the man-candy as aggressively as they did the Angelina-Jolie nudity. Fair's fair, y'all).
I would not recommend the movie if you've got a weak stomach for violence. Maybe it was just the 3D effect, but this was the first time I have felt compelled to cover my eyes during a PG-13 movie, particularly duriing the first scene with Grendel. I'm honestly surprised that the movie earned a PG-13 rating, instead of an R. But maybe I'm just becoming a wimpy fuddy-duddy in my old age. XD
Anyway, bottom line: Good flick. Very good. Would recommend to Gaiman fans, and also to anyone looking for a fun action-fantasy film. Poem purists may have some issues, but I would advise you to just try and enjoy it for what it is.
Now sit back and watch me eat my words in two weeks when The Golden Compass comes out. God, I hope it's good. I know it won't be perfect, but please let it be good, or I shall cry.
Edit: Also, forgot to mention that Rock Band is a phenomenal game and I love music_enforcer and lunapome for getting it AND for being nice enough to also live right downstairs from me! However, must remember to stretch properly before I try and play the drums again, cos ow.
I know I had plenty of both: zinjadu's parents kindly took in nekokoban and I again this year, along with coramegan. There was a fantastic home-cooked meal -- turkey, potatoes, corn, home-made rolls, and two, count 'em, TWO pies!. So much yum. Then we watched Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill" (I hadn't seen it! He's hysterical!) while coramegan took a nap. After that, we all headed down to Pacific Place to see Beowulf.
I had tried to be hopeful going into this movie. I had heard some rather negative reviews, but I figured, hey, it's Neil Gaiman and Robert Zemeckis, I'll trust them if nothing else. And now, having seen the movie, I feel I was right to do so.
Let me say right up front that if you are a purist about the poem, and wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than an exact and entirely faithful adaptation... you might want to give this a miss. Otherwise...
I read Beowulf back in AP English, senior year of high school, and aside from a strong feeling of, "oh, so this is what Tolkien was going for", quite enjoyed it, for what it was. It is, after all, the oldest story in the English language: it would be unfair to hold it to modern standards of story-telling style and structure: it is what it is, and you have to take it or leave it.
I feel much the same way about the movie: it's a 2007 Hollywood epic film, and must be taken for what it is. It is not a word-for-word adaptation of the poem; the plot has been altered to make the story more linear; the emphasis is more on Beowulf as a character and less on his heroic deeds (though the heroic monster-slaying is still there, in full-color CG 3D glory).
I feel that giving the screenplay to Neil Gaiman to write was a very good move, because Gaiman is all about adapting, updating, patchworking, and reinventing old myths and legends and tales (see American Gods, Sandman, and quite a lot else) while still remaining respectful of the source material. He obviously has a lot of respect for the myths and legends he makes his stories from, so you know that even if he changes things, you know he did so in full knowledge of what he was doing, instead of gutting the poem and tacking on more nudity and violence cos he thinks it'd sell.
For instance,probably the biggest change to the story is that in the movie, Grendel's mother is a shapeshifter who can take a (beautiful) semi-human form. Grendel, we learn, is her son by Hrothgar, and after Beowulf slays that son, she wants him to give her another. Beowulf, instead of killing her, is seduced by her, and their son is the dragon that attackes Beowulf's kingdom those many years later. Obviously this is a big departure from the poem, but for some reason I found I didn't mind. Maybe this is just my fannishness talking, but I felt like Gaiman didn't make the changes to the story because he thought that the poem was bad and he could write it better; but rather, so that he could tell a story that would work better as a movie, aimed at a modern audience. That was the impression I got, at least. The poem doesn't really fit into the Hollywood narrative, which is all about cause and effect relationships which propel the plot along, and Gaiman's script flows in that way. It's not trite or boring or overly-predictable, but it is in some ways comfortingly familiar. Things hold together and lead into one another in a way that makes sense and all just seems to work, and that's something we come to expect from Hollywood movies, even if we don't realize it. So anyway, even with all the changes, I was okay with it.
All right, enough about the story. Now for the look of the thing! The animation is, for the most part, lovely, if not always consistent; while the main characters, particularly Beowulf and Wealthow, are beautifully detailed and rendered, much of the background characters look rather phoned in. Now, I'm willing to give movies a lot of leeway when it comes to graphics, because God knows that stuff is difficult, way beyond me, and I have no idea how much cost or effort went into animating the movie, but I'm gonna guess it was a lot. So the quality of the CG wasn't a huge issue for me, although your mileage may vary depending upon how much this sort of thing affects your enjoyment of a film.
Also: I keep forgetting that Angelina Jolie can act, too, in addition to being smokin' hot. And props to the movie for giving us equal opportunity fanservice: you get naked Grendel-mommy AND naked Beowulf. I approve (I just wish they'd advertised the man-candy as aggressively as they did the Angelina-Jolie nudity. Fair's fair, y'all).
I would not recommend the movie if you've got a weak stomach for violence. Maybe it was just the 3D effect, but this was the first time I have felt compelled to cover my eyes during a PG-13 movie, particularly duriing the first scene with Grendel. I'm honestly surprised that the movie earned a PG-13 rating, instead of an R. But maybe I'm just becoming a wimpy fuddy-duddy in my old age. XD
Anyway, bottom line: Good flick. Very good. Would recommend to Gaiman fans, and also to anyone looking for a fun action-fantasy film. Poem purists may have some issues, but I would advise you to just try and enjoy it for what it is.
Now sit back and watch me eat my words in two weeks when The Golden Compass comes out. God, I hope it's good. I know it won't be perfect, but please let it be good, or I shall cry.
Edit: Also, forgot to mention that Rock Band is a phenomenal game and I love music_enforcer and lunapome for getting it AND for being nice enough to also live right downstairs from me! However, must remember to stretch properly before I try and play the drums again, cos ow.