As far as movies go, this one has what is popular: action, adventure, sex, blood, and lots of twists that will keep you guessing what the truth is.
However, if you've read Beowulf (which, judging by the reviews, is a small number of people), and you appreciate the characters and hold them in a place of dignity and respect in your mind, then forget about appreciating anything about the movie. Though Beowulf is portrayed in the epic as the great leader and hero who never has done a dishonorable deed, he is, in the movie, portrayed as a liar and a deceiver. He defeats Grendel by closing his arm in a door. He never kills Grendel's mother because she seduces him and together, they beget the Dragon. How does this even make any sense? He returns to the Geats claiming to have defeated Grendel's mother and is then made king by Hrothgar. This is, of course, good for Beowulf, because he has a thing for Wealtheow, Hrothgar's wife, anyway. The kind and noble King Hrothgar has also been degraded to a cheating husband who also sleeps with Grendel's mother (hence the existence of Grendel) and who end up killing himself after making Beowulf king. the only noble deed that Beowulf seems to achieve (in the movie) is by severing his own arm from his body and by tearing out the dragon's heart with his bare hand (neither of which is in the book, by the way.) Funny, in the book, I don't remember the fight with the dragon leaving the cave at all...
We can only pray that someday someone does this epic justice and makes a decent film out of it. Until then, I give this steaming pile of movie a one... out of ten.
However, if you've read Beowulf (which, judging by the reviews, is a small number of people), and you appreciate the characters and hold them in a place of dignity and respect in your mind, then forget about appreciating anything about the movie. Though Beowulf is portrayed in the epic as the great leader and hero who never has done a dishonorable deed, he is, in the movie, portrayed as a liar and a deceiver. He defeats Grendel by closing his arm in a door. He never kills Grendel's mother because she seduces him and together, they beget the Dragon. How does this even make any sense? He returns to the Geats claiming to have defeated Grendel's mother and is then made king by Hrothgar. This is, of course, good for Beowulf, because he has a thing for Wealtheow, Hrothgar's wife, anyway. The kind and noble King Hrothgar has also been degraded to a cheating husband who also sleeps with Grendel's mother (hence the existence of Grendel) and who end up killing himself after making Beowulf king. the only noble deed that Beowulf seems to achieve (in the movie) is by severing his own arm from his body and by tearing out the dragon's heart with his bare hand (neither of which is in the book, by the way.) Funny, in the book, I don't remember the fight with the dragon leaving the cave at all...
We can only pray that someday someone does this epic justice and makes a decent film out of it. Until then, I give this steaming pile of movie a one... out of ten.
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