saw Beowulf on tv last night

[gimmewhitecastles]

Was flipping through the channels last night and caught Beowulf on FX. I immediately did a doubletake. I remember when the movie was in theaters the trailers and commercials made it look like some 300 clone. So I passed over it without a second thought. I look at it now and I realize it was a full CGI movie. I thought I was watching Shrek at first.

But after watching for about a half hour I changed the channel because the character animations were ridiculous and the dialogue was stupid.

"I. AM. BEOWULF!"

But I'm just amazed I didn't realize this before when I first saw the trailers. I guess I need my eyes checked. :\

 

[zebano]

That movie sucked.

 

[brblx]

but, dude, it had nude CGI angelina jolie. with a tail.

 

[0roo0roo]

i thought it was some good dumb fun.
some of the cg was good, some was kinda off.
and yea the nude jolie was not bad at all

 

[gimmewhitecastles]

but, dude, it had nude CGI angelina jolie. with a tail.

Mind you this was on tv, albeit cable tv. So if there was any nudity it would have probably been edited out. It would have probably been creepy looking either way.

 

[ravana]

be glad you didn't pay to watch that in the theater.

 

[0roo0roo]

well she's covered in gold, so it was "essentially" nudity.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Mind you this was on tv, albeit cable tv. So if there was any nudity it would have probably been edited out. It would have probably been creepy looking either way.

I saw it, too. It was FX, they blurred it but didn't cut it.

But man, that movie was terrible. I couldn't take it.

 

[OutHouse]

I liked it.

 

[SandEagle]

i paid to see this crap

the song Hero from the soundtrack is great though

 

[mrCide]

i paid to watch it, i was really upset.

i paid to watch clash of the titans too, that was upsetting.

why do i keep paying for stupid movies? silly relationships..

 

[tk149]

I loved the movie. Even bought it on Blu-Ray.

/flamesuit on

 

[OutHouse]

I loved the movie. Even bought it on Blu-Ray.

/flamesuit on

its on blu-ray? humm ill have to get it.

 

[bignateyk]

I saw it, too. It was FX, they blurred it but didn't cut it.

But man, that movie was terrible. I couldn't take it.

They forgot to blur her nipple out in the scene at the end where she jumps in the water. Yeah I watched it. It was pretty terrible. Especially the ending.

 

[waggy]

i thought it was pretty good.

 

[nakedfrog]

Hm, I never gave much thought to it, but I might have to check it out now that I see Neil Gaiman had a hand in the writing. Five bucks on HD-DVD

 

[bignateyk]

Hm, I never gave much thought to it, but I might have to check it out now that I see Neil Gaiman had a hand in the writing. Five bucks on HD-DVD

Overall the story wasn't too terrible. The only thing that really sucked was the ending. They were obviously just trying to set it up for a sequel, but even then it sets it up for a terrible sequel.

It would have been a much better movie if it hadn't been animated.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I liked it. I thought they should have had more character development of Beowulf's half-breed dragon son. The movie just sorta throws him out there at the end, seemingly as an excuse for another quick fight scene.

 

[acheron]

I liked it. I thought they should have had more character development of Beowulf's half-breed dragon son. The movie just sorta throws him out there at the end, seemingly as an excuse for another quick fight scene.

Hwæt! Not to point out the obvious, but:

syððan Beowulfe brade rice
on hand gehwearf; he geheold tela
fiftig wintra (wæs ða frod cyning,
eald eþelweard), oððæt an ongan
deorcum nihtum draca ricsian

The dragon just kind of shows up in the original, too. (he's not Beowulf's son though, that's just in the movie.) The movie changed up a lot, but the entire core of the story is that Beowulf has to fight Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon.

 

[zinfamous]

You know...I didn't think it was great, but I really dug what they did with the story. Serious liberties were taken, sure, but they made a coherent film plot out of a very unconnected story.

I think it worked really, really well, and probably shows why all of the other adaptations of the story have failed miserably for film. Also the coolest, most accurate interpretation of Grendel that I have seen.

Horrible dialogue, yes; but I think the story and characters were nearly flawlessly adapted for the first coherent Beowulf screenplay.

 

[zinfamous]

Overall the story wasn't too terrible. The only thing that really sucked was the ending. They were obviously just trying to set it up for a sequel, but even then it sets it up for a terrible sequel.

It would have been a much better movie if it hadn't been animated.

the ending stands alone, I think. No reason to think it was being set-up for a sequel...unless you want to see the same cycle repeat itself, which is what we're left with.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

i think the selling point for this movie was the 3d and animated angelina.

 

[zinfamous]

I liked it. I thought they should have had more character development of Beowulf's half-breed dragon son. The movie just sorta throws him out there at the end, seemingly as an excuse for another quick fight scene.

well, that's the major problem with adapting the original story to screen. The dragon story is somewhat random. It's 50+ years later, Beowulf is long removed from Heorot, having been king of his own Geatland (or was he the thane--kind of hazy).

To make it more coherent, they kept Beowulf at Heorot, taking over the throne that he defended by defeating Grendel (he waxed the mom in the book, too--HUGE liberty in the film), and added a real connection to the Dragon via Grendel's mom, the price of that throne, an entirely new morality trope involving the price and corruptibility of power that isn't really found in the original prose.

There's a lot of great side stuff in the film too--the conflict between the new monotheism of Christianity shoving away the old gods (the original is essentially written as a trope of Christ--a heavily-Christian-themed piece of work, translated by monks as a heroic adaptation of Christ's story, more or less). The movie plays on this well-documented scholarly approach to the original, and adds its own twist. I think it works really well.