Beowulf: The Movie

Last weekend we watched Beowulf...I have to admit I'm a little underwhelmed. Honestly, I didn't have soaring expectations. Generally speaking, I haven't been impressed when Hollywood tries to take on the classics. This was no exception.

First, I'm not sure I get the point of having done it in the new weird CGI animation type stuff. There's no reason the people couldn't have been people and then just CGI the monsters. And I think if they'd done that it would've been a better movie - more believable - instead of just feeling like a cartoon. Plus, I find it incredibly distracting to have the actors not look like themselves and then you'll hit one angle and be like, "Oh hey, that's Anthony Hopkins." and then you look again and shake your head and decide you were seeing things. (The only actor, or in this case, actress, who always looked right was Angelina Jolie.) Or, if they were going to go with the animation, they should've just gone for the gusto and make it all cartoony rather than trying to make it "realistic cartoons". Cause, um, jumbo shrimp anyone?

Secondly, Grendel looked nothing like I imagined from reading the text. Now, I'll admit that it's been a looong time since I read the poem, but honestly the mental image of Grendel stuck with me. But the movie version made me feel more sorry for him than anything. He wasn't scary, he was pitiable and pathetic.

Finally, I'm sure there are going to be millions of kids who decide they're going to watch the movie rather than reading the poem and, well, they're going to miss out. Because while the story line is, essentially, correct, the two really aren't interchangeable. And the written version is ever so much better, because even though it's been years since I read it, it sticks in my mind. I only remembered that we watched this last weekend because I was trying to think of something to blog about.

2 Drinking Horns out of 5.