[Movie] Beowulf ***SPOILERS IN RED & QUOTE****

[SinisterDeath]

I saw Beowulf tonight in theaters, "alas, not in the IMAX, didn't feel like waiting till 9pm to watch it!".

For those that don't know, Beowulf is based on the epic poem? Beowulf, that just happens to be the oldest? fiction/fantasy story. Or at least, from that region. :P

The general story of Beowulf, which most of you should have read in Highschool, inspired Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, and many of the connections between them are very aparent.

 

As for the movie Beowulf, it is entirely shot in CG, the quality, in some parts, are VERY realistic. "but imo, FF7:AC, or FF:Spirits Within looked better. Even if I'm biased. :P"

The graphics were pretty top notch, I mean, Anthony Hopkins who played, well, the king, that beowulf helps. (wrothgar? Hroothbar? I suck at names!) Has several of his trademark features, Even though they rendered him a bit fatter. ;) The voice acting, was pretty good to imo. (except for the guy who gives Beowulf Hrunting(sp) He sucked.)

 

The Story of the movie followed the orginal pretty closely IMO, with a few liberaties... Compared to the crap beowulf/grendel movies SCI-FI showed, its makes those look like the pron "saving ryans privates"!

 

It had everything an epic movie needs.

Action,

Adventure,

Love,

Laughter,

Sorrow,

With out all of those, its not truelly an epic! And if you read the story of beowulf, you know how it ends.

 

Overall, I rate this movie pretty damned high.

I loved Shoot Em' Up, and by my scale of 1-10, that was an 9.

Live Free or Die Hard was a 8.9.

 

I rank Beowulf about a 15.

Now, if you read the story of beowulf, you may 'dislike' the 'liberties' they took, but if you followed the background a bit, I think what they did really makes Beowulf the Movie, almost, if not better then the story.

The Story you read in the books, was The Legend of Beowulf.

The Story you see on the silver screen; was the Man, Beowulf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** SPOILERS JUST A BIT LOWER ***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** FINAL WARNING ***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** SPOILERS ***

If your familar with the story of beowulf, its pretty straight forward, (sorta)

 

Kingdom gets assulted by Grendel in the meadhall, slaughters tons of people.

the king offers any hero half of his treasure if he slays Grendel.

Fast forward about 15 years into the future.

Beowulf arrives, armed escort bring him to the king, a few conversations go about, and the tale about beowulf and the 'swim' challange he lost.

They set up 'shop' in the mead hall, to lure grendel in. Some of the men drink to much, making them unware for grendels arivel.

About 3 or 4 of Beowulfs men dies, I believe Beowulf attempted to kill him but failed. They attempetd again once more the following day, where beowulf ripped grendels arm off. (this part is pretty fuzzy, I'm pretty sure they tried twice to kill grendel not once.)

After grendels arm is torn off, he flees to his 'home' in a 'hole' in the ground filled with water, and an underwater 'labyerinth' beneath it.

 

Grendels mother seeks revenge kills most of beowulf's men. Beowulf heads into the 'hole' to face grendel. This time armed.

He kills grendels mother.

Hrothgar, thanks Beowulf again, and offers him his kingdom...

 

Fastfoward a few years, Beowulf is in his 50 or 60's. Everythings prosperous until a dragon attacks...

Inorder to protect his kingdom, Beowulf faces the dragon. basically alone. (with some help here and there).

 

Beowulf kills the dragon at the expense of his own life... Fatally wounded he told his 'best man' to give his riches to his people... (at least, thats what I thought I read)

Instead, they gave him the classic viking funeral, with all his riches on the boat, burning it in the tides.

"Now, I'm sketchy on that, since if he was beowulfs most loyal friend, why would he do that? Maybe I misread it... or he did give his treasures to his people & gave him a proper funeral."

 

Now the above was basically the book, albit a few major details missing... (mostly text/conversations,ect)

 

 

In Beowulf the movie, however. Things are pretty simular.

King Hrothgar throws a party in his newly built Mead Hall, Grendel hearing this awakens in agony from the sounds of joy and festivities. Attacks the mead hall, slaughtering most of the people in it. Or at least those who tried to attack him. He spared hrothgar and his wife's lives, a 'few' people survived. (he didn't kill everyone obviously!)

 

Hrothgar closes down the mead hall and does not let anyone throw any 'festivities' since it will awaken Grendels wrath.

He then states that he will offer his riches to any hero who can kill Grendel.

"So far, basically spot on with the orignal, obviously not word for word, it also depends on which translation you read. :P"

 

Now fast forward a few years into the future, and Beowulf comes to the rescue, on the boat in the middle of a storm. They arive to face a 'party' questioning they are here. He tells them, they don't believe it, due to the fact that they haven't seen a 'hero' in ages.

He meets the king, introduces him to his people, and what he has come to do, the king warns him of the dangers. Beowulf says he'll kill grendel. And that since they were on the seas for 5 days, they required the mead hall to be opened for a little rest, Hrothgar, tells beowulf why its 'barred'. And he orders it opened anyways, as to lure grendel... "Again, pretty spot on".

 

Within the mead hall a lot of dialogue happened, including the 'drunk' talking about beowulf, and some 'other beowulf' who 'lost a swim race'. And questioned if he was that beowulf. And if that beowulf couldn't win a race, how could he kill grendel?

Beowulf told a tale about facing 9 sea monsters in the middle of the race, preventing him from winning. Now his 'soldiers said' "last time it was 3!" Yet in his story there seemed to be a glimmer of 'truth' behind it, and possibly a bit of foreshadowing!

 

Anyways, the man still questionins him with skepticicm to 'sea monsters'. I think this is about the point where the movie stops following 100% close to the orginal...

Now assuming Beowulf faced Grendel twice, They differed here. Probably for continuity reasons.

 

Anyways, the king and his men left leaving Beowulf and his Troops. Beowulf went to 'sleep', while his troops 'sang' "this is actually in the story to I believe" Grendel 'knocks' on the door, busts it open kills about 3 men.

 

Beowulf jumps into action, wrestling, punching, jumping/dodging, you name it. Except, slightly in the nude! (this maybe for you ladies!, even if he is CG...) now, I don't remember Beowulf fighting in the 'nude' in the story, but he definately faced grendel unarmed, and ripped his arm off.

IN the movie however, While fighting Grendel, A chain got wrapped around Grendels arm, and with a little bit of 'manuervering, Beowulf wrapped it between two pillers. basically locking grednel in place. Beowulf then went into the..

 

"I am ripper! SLASHER! THIS IS SPARTA err... I AM BEOWULF!" Monologue, then slammed the door on Grendels Arm till it was severed. Grendel craweld away to mother, and died. "The dieing part happened in the story"

 

From here, beowulf and company told Beowulfs Tall tale, that they bravely fought Grendel, and Beowulf faced Grendel unarmed! and tore his arm off. Basically showing, that like his 'swimming story' it is mostly a tall tale, which is sort of expect. I mean, you don't honestly think Beowulf could pull a creature that could break down a barracaded door with one arm, now do you? But tis the story of a hero, if they went into the real details, it becomes to logical and not fun to listen to! Plus it makes it a bitch for the bards to make a rhyme!

 

Anyways, later that night, Grendels Mother, after finding out who killed him, came to the mead hall and killed all but say... 2 of Beowulfs men, Strung them up by the rafters in the mead hall. now this is slightly different, I think from what happened in the story, but I do believe she killed a few of Beowulfs men, and beowulf tried to kill her and failed...

 

Hrothgar tells Beowulf exactly 'how many' monsters he has to defeat, since Beowulf asked if he had to destroy an entire family... And asked what of Grendels father? With which Hrothgar looked ashamed, and it was transparent. (after several other hints through out) that Hrothgar was Grendels Father.) Beowulf went to the 'cave' to kill Grendels Mother, His most loyal friend/general, asked

"want me to come in with you?"

With which beowulf replied something like

"no"

and the guy said

"good!"

 

Beowulf got into the cave, swam a little, losing his torch, and using the golden Dragon Horn as a 'lamp', cause apparently its magical and can light up dark spaces! (not sure if this happened, but he did get the horn in the story.)

He finds Grendels Mother, and tries to kill her a few times. Failing, as she appears to be an 'illusion'.

He is then made an offer...

 

"bear me a child, and leave that golden horn here, and you shall be the greatest king who has ever lived, so long as the horn lies here."

Beowulf, agrees, gets some boom chaka boom boom on. He leaves and tells everyone he slayed Grendels Mother. Leaving Hrunting behind as everytime he removed the sword, she came back to life.

 

Now, I believe this part is 'wrong' compared to the story, as I believe he actually killed Grendels Mother, and returned with at least 1 of there heads...

 

Now given the other 'tall tales' he has spoken, and the stories that are told by the bards about him, I really think this is what makes this movie great. It shows him as a man, with his own faults.

 

Fast forward about 30 years, his kingdom is strong and thriving. And his only 'opponents' are renagades who want to kill beowulf to become a legend. He faces one of them, mare chested (not nude, sorry ladies!) Telling him to kill him, and the man refuses, dropping to his knees. throwing his axe away.

 

Then of course, that guy who gave beowulf Hrunting, his slave found the 'gold dragon horn'. and removed it from the scene. Beowulf gets a bit furious at the finding, only his wife had an idea as to why.

The next day, A dragon attacked Beowulf's Kingdom. who turns out to be Beowulf's Son. Who tells Hrutnings orignal owner, a few things, leaving the guy to basically chant 'the sins of the father, the sins of the father'...

IT should be noted, that This guys 'slave' is named Cain. So it should be obvious which source most of the details of this movie came from. (which happens to be the one I read in Highschool) But they do take a few shots at christanity in the movie, basically saying that when 'jesus' came to this land, heroes and monsters died. There are no more heroes, only sorrow and martyrs.

 

Anyawys, Beowulf plans an attack against the dragon, and him, leading the charge by going into the 'den'. (the same cave) where he sees Grendels mother, and just in time to run out before a dragon tries to burn him. He fights with the dragon abit, several shots of him riding its back with a sword as a grappling hook, a scene where he jumps off and catches a cliff in time, and jumping back onto the dragon. Where of course it dived into the water, and he cast an anchor in its mouth like a hook! and he on the chain followed the dragon. as it attempted to kill Beowulfs lovers. (Both the orignal queen and a new hottie) Beowulf stabs, slashes, wraps around the dragon several time, getting closer to its neck, He slices its throat, it breaths fire through its throat like a smoker through there trachia! (pretty sweet scene to)

He then reaches in, trying to stab the heart.. tries to stab the heart with his dagger which is alas, to short. So he does the next most logical thing, he tears a hole in his chainmail, and severs his arm off. (Ironically the exact same way Grendel died.. arm torn off.) The only thing holding him up, is his chainmail. He reaches in again, and still can't quite hit the heart... A few more tries till the dragon breathes fire roasting his arm up abit Dropping the sword. All the while the dragon attacks his women. It goes in for the kill, Beowulf pissed at its attempt, Reaches in with his bare hand, and pulls the dragons heart out. Which, oddly enough is 'human sized'. They both plummet down, and land on the beach. (Where hrothgar commited sucide by jumping.)

 

This is where the screen pans down to see beowulf on the ground, slightly alive, with an arm missing. Looking over at the Gold Dragon, slowly melting away, leaving a 'man' in its place. The man, can only be described as 'perfect' unlike the mutant that was Grendel. A tear falls from Beowulfs eye, as he lays on his death bed. His Loyal friend comes down, and beowulf tries to tell him that he was no hero, and Beowulf's friend said something akin to

"NO You slayed Grendel with your bare hands, Ran Grendels mother Through, and Ripped the heart from a dragon."

 

Basically stating that, This land needs a hero, YOU ARE A hero, even if you are a man and had weaknesses. You succumed to your weakness, and you paid it back with your life. You saved this kingdom twice. You cut your own arm off to save those you loved. If he's not a hero, then I'm santa clause!

 

From here, Beowulfs loyal friend is crowned king, as everyone mourned Beowulf who was given the traditional viking Funeral. (filled with treasrues! + it was burned, not by arrows, but molten gold!)

 

Beowulfs loyal friend walked the beach as the ship slowly sank beneath the waves to see Grendels seductively evil mother kiss Beowulf a final good bye. He looks down and sees the golden dragon horn, and looks back out to see Grendel's Mother, slowly enticing him to come forth, him. Resisting. Yet, its unclear whether this man, holds the same weakness for women that Beowulf did. As it cut short of any action as to whether he decided to follow in Hrothgar, and Beowulf's path, or if he was going to break the curse in which Beowulf lost his life to end.

 

Now, I'm pretty sure before they faced Grendel, there were afew differences from the orginal story. I might be wrong, It might follow it word for word. But given the fact that they were trying to protray Beowulf as a Man, and in the background tell the story we hear today. I think it really makes this story, even better. The Ending alone, I loved. Many may not like it because Beowulf died, but thats like saying you hated romeo and juliet because they died in each others arms! The movie has a message through out it, and regardless of the fact that Beowulf had weaknesses and was a man, He was a hero. So even if you hate the movie because of its innacuracies. (And even the various translations are pertty much different from each other, and compared to the one I read, it was spot on in alot of it, and in some spots, dialogue to!)

 

I may love alot of movies that bomb in theaters.. "shoot 'em up" for instance, and I may be biased in some regards, but I really do think Beowulf is one of the best movies of the year.

 

It may not be no, American Gangster, It may not be No land for old men. But for the sheer scope of the story, how close they remained to the story, and the way they took the liberties to it, that tied it in with the orginal "cause face it, they are going to be able to, even in CG to follow the story word for word" Did, imo the best job I have ever seen, EVEN with the glaring differences, of following a story end to end.

 

So again, I give it a 15 out of 10 possible points.

 

Now IF only I can see it in the theater in that I-MAX. :P

 

[ironcross]

sin for once i have to toaly aggree with you.  it was an awsom movie (and no i dident get to see it in imax either  :( )  i can live with the few discrepinses (sp) the only thing i wish was that they had done the cg a little better.  there were parts where i couldent tell if it was cg or live action, and other parts looked like shreck.  other then that, no coplaints.

 

oh and you get to see angie nude guys.  +10 points for that :p

[Kaznen]

It didn't need to be CG animation.  Most of the characters looked like the actors who voiced them.  It could have been live action mixed with CG effects.

[Corki]

It's a really good film! Loved the graphics. I knew is was animated, but I didn't realise the whole thing was! It was very realistic.

 

I can also understand why Angelina Jolie was surprised at the 12A rating. It was quite bloody and graphic, but if they knocked it up to a 15, I am sure they could have made it better.

 

Now, my biggest grudge with the film is how they mucked up the story line from the original tale (just like how they ruined Troy - don't get me started on that since I am a Classicist and the Trojan War is bread and butter for us!). I did have to check after the film to see if they had got it wrong as it had been a good 8-10 years since I've read the story (I was pretty sure they had when watching the film), but of course, they are allowed artistic license. At least it wasn't as bad as Troy (10 days compared to 10 years; the killing of Menelaus...the list goes on...).

 

It's a good film, but not a great film, as I dislike storylines of ancient literature being played with and made incorrect, as it gives the wrong version to people.

[SinisterDeath]

It's a really good film! Loved the graphics. I knew is was animated, but I didn't realise the whole thing was! It was very realistic.

 

I can also understand why Angelina Jolie was surprised at the 12A rating. It was quite bloody and graphic, but if they knocked it up to a 15, I am sure they could have made it better.

 

Now, my biggest grudge with the film is how they mucked up the story line from the original tale (just like how they ruined Troy - don't get me started on that since I am a Classicist and the Trojan War is bread and butter for us!). I did have to check after the film to see if they had got it wrong as it had been a good 8-10 years since I've read the story (I was pretty sure they had when watching the film), but of course, they are allowed artistic license. At least it wasn't as bad as Troy (10 days compared to 10 years; the killing of Menelaus...the list goes on...).

 

It's a good film, but not a great film, as I dislike storylines of ancient literature being played with and made incorrect, as it gives the wrong version to people.

 

See I disagree, if only on what I said on the orginal post. No film is going to be exactly 100% true to the orginal. Specially not beowulf with about 20 different translations running amock! (And I believe theres like 5 christian versions, and maybe 1 or 2 versions that aren't from christian reinterpertation.)

 

Watching this movie, its sort of obvious where they got most of the ideas from (the christian version) as well as poking fun at it to...

Besides that though, The liberties they took, made sense. They weren't just butchering the story like the Sci-Fi movie GRENDEL did. The story you read, was in the background, being told by the bards. "and they stressed this throughout the film!" The movie was what they interperutted as what 'really happened'. IMO....

 

Also, one of my main grudges with CG action shots is this.

Matrix: Reloaded.

You have live action then Boom, you got cg, except, the cg sucked. I mean, it was damned obvious what was cg, and what was live action. It 'loses' something between here and there. Now being fully CG it doesn't 'detract'.

 

Now While I agree they could have done a better job on this movie CG wise. But consider how long they made it.  If they spent the same amount of detail on all the secondary characters, as they did Beowulf, Angelena Jolie, and The Dragon, the movie would have fricken rocked hard core! And I agree, there are spots its like 'wow, is that real?' and other times you thought you were looking at a shrek movie.

 

Hence why the grahpics of the movie are for me, on the 'low end' of the awesomeness that is the movie. The action/fighting on the other hand is teh awesome.

 

 

Also, at the very end of the movie, with Wilgruf walking the shore staring out at the boat, It pissed me off that they made one hand look 'semi-realistic' and the other look like a maniquen hand...

 

Don't know about you but for Beowulf's Brother, they did a shotty job at one of the 4th most frequently seen characters...

 

Also, not sure about you but...

CG Jolie > Jolie. even if the CG jolie was a barby doll. :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who saw the movie, did you catch the reflection that showed exactly what jolies' character looked like?

Also, I have this theory that the only thing that can 'kill' jolie's character in the story, is gold.:P

[Liitha]

Hrothgar ;)

 

film was ok, maybe something that would be better if you knew of the story behind beforehand

 

great music, and mostly good animating or whatever to call it, for someone who dont know the story from before seeing the move i'd say...def worth seeing but not the m ovie of the year no. Like with the LotR movies it gets to focused on the mainplotline to suck you into the movie through conection with the characters. Its just 2 hours, from LotR we know that 3 hours movies is acceptable, and for fantasy with so much ongoing you really need to spend the time, they could have used the extra hour i am sure to make it a whole lot better (just as LotR could have used doubeling the number of movies ;))

[Vemynal]

i liked it^^

[Barmacral]

I liked it, not my favourite movie in the world by any means.

[Mendorah]

I saw it in IMAX 3D the day after Thanksgiving.  And HOLY HELL! 

 

I wasn't bothered by the changes in the story.  It's been so long since I read the story that I didn't even pay attention.  Until I thought about it later.  And by then it didn't matter.

 

Most of the animation looked like animation.  But there were a few characters who looked Very close to real.  I was Really worried about this movie being all CGI.  I would prefer a live action movie, honestly.  However, now that I've seen it, I can't say too much bad about it.  The only things I disliked are:

 

1.  some of the really fast paced action scenes turned blurry and were too much for the 3D.  It was a little disorienting.  But there were only a few of those.

 

2.  There were a few instances where an object on the screen to the side that was supposed to be a decoration was distracting because it was too close.

 

So as you can see, my only issues with the movie had to do with problems in the 3D.  I'm interested to see it now without the 3D to see if I feel the same about the movie as a whole.

 

Other gripes I had which had nothing to do with the movie were:

 

1.  My glasses were so big I had to hold them up to my face for most of the movie.  Although had I asked for smaller glasses, they would not have fit over my Real glasses. 

 

2.  TWO IDIOT families brought their small children to the movie!  And when I say small, I mean under the age of 7.  I'm sure both kids had nightmares after that one.  Well, maybe not the boy, but still he was awful young.  And that little girl got an eye full of Almost full frontal male nudity.  The Almost was cleverly pulled off and was even pretty funny.  But, dude, I don't think I know Anybody who thought that movie was appropriate for children!

 

Did anybody else giggle everytime Beowulf's nudity was covered up???  It was very Austin Powers.

[SinisterDeath]

Did anybody else giggle everytime Beowulf's nudity was covered up???  It was very Austin Powers.

 

Yea, the entire theater cracked up laughing, the first time it was like lol, and everytime after that was lmao! :P

[Kaznen]

I saw it again in 3D and I have to say:

 

Beowulf + 3D = PURE F#*&ING AWSOMENESS!!!!!

 

I thought, the first time, it was okay.  But when I saw it in 3D...

 

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o