Beowulf
So as a lover of literature on the older side of things, and as a former instructor of Ancient myth, I was pretty excited to see Beowulf come to the screen.
However, I was reading AICN review by Harry over there and my enthusiasm sank pretty fast when I read this:
"Let me start at the beginning. When the film starts - I was distracted by the look of the movie… for about 5 minutes. Then, suddenly… as the tormented Grendel begins to be pained by the noisy humans… the loud, inconsiderate, drunk, fornicating braggarts of Denmark… It pains poor Grendel… and he communicates this physically, not in dialogue… and the result is filled with pathos. He’s a tumored, diseased demon creature… some horrid half-breed of man and the supernatural. He turned out twisted and sad… anything, but magnificent - and the pain that human kind causes him in his cave… far far away could not be conceived by those in the valley below."
Um yeah, because that's really what Beowulf is about. Actually, the legend praises civilization and the orderliness of community represented by the Hall where the warriors gathers. It is Grendel who is the wild thing, the loner, the thing of chaos, the thing out of control, disorderliness itself.
So either Harry got it wrong (and actually his reviews aren't my favorite on there) OR the writers etc. for this film have totally screwed up the story and message for the sake of a more exciting tale or something, and the moronic majority of the movie going population.
But people like it because it's a "cool" story and the effects of the animation are awesome...blah blah blah.
However, I was reading AICN review by Harry over there and my enthusiasm sank pretty fast when I read this:
"Let me start at the beginning. When the film starts - I was distracted by the look of the movie… for about 5 minutes. Then, suddenly… as the tormented Grendel begins to be pained by the noisy humans… the loud, inconsiderate, drunk, fornicating braggarts of Denmark… It pains poor Grendel… and he communicates this physically, not in dialogue… and the result is filled with pathos. He’s a tumored, diseased demon creature… some horrid half-breed of man and the supernatural. He turned out twisted and sad… anything, but magnificent - and the pain that human kind causes him in his cave… far far away could not be conceived by those in the valley below."
Um yeah, because that's really what Beowulf is about. Actually, the legend praises civilization and the orderliness of community represented by the Hall where the warriors gathers. It is Grendel who is the wild thing, the loner, the thing of chaos, the thing out of control, disorderliness itself.
So either Harry got it wrong (and actually his reviews aren't my favorite on there) OR the writers etc. for this film have totally screwed up the story and message for the sake of a more exciting tale or something, and the moronic majority of the movie going population.
But people like it because it's a "cool" story and the effects of the animation are awesome...blah blah blah.