movie: beowulf

[meganbmoore]

Ray Winstone makes for a mighty fine CGI Beowulf, even though the younger Beowulf looks a bit like Sean Bean to me.  Which is far from a complaint.  Actually, Ray Winstone in general made for a pretty good Beowulf.  I rather hope, though, that Angelina Jolie objected to her CGI rendition.

Nekkid but with apparently built-in high heels made of gold = WTF?

Prehensile hair = Win.

And may I just say that this movie gave me a whole level on the "blatant sexual imagery" meter?

Angelina Jolie stroking Beowulf's sword and talking about making him king forever, and then having the sword turn into liquid metal and drip from her hands was something else.

And then the hilt...uhm...spewed.

The queen was made of pure awesome.  And possibly the only smart person in the movie.  Wiglaf tried hard to make it two smart people, but was in the middle of giving that up at the end.

I kind of have to wonder, though, what they were thinking by having him lie about his exploits and make eyes at married women.  Still, it kinda worked.

Really, I have no idea what I think of this movie, especially some of it's choices for reinterpretation, but it was interesting and kept me entertained.

Comments

[bellzooks.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I have been meaning to see this movie for a long time but the comment on Angelina Jolie's built in high heels really sold me on it. I will have to get hold of it post haste.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

She's like...half covered in molten gold, and then there are high heals and there's just...no way she's wearing shoes...

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

I really couldn't handle Ray Winstone's voice. Beowulf as a Londoner? Hardly a heroic accent. I half-expected him to start selling people counterfeit Rolex watches.

I'm fairly sure that the resemblance to Sean Bean was deliberate. I suspect they wished they could afford him. I could only watch the film by pretending it was Sean Bean and imagining him speaking. Ray Winstone is often miscast in historical stuff. In Robin of Sherwood, his accent was a distraction. As Henry VIII, it was insane mockery. Whatever Henry's faults, he undoubtedly spoke well.

Mostly, it was pretty good, although I didn't like the deviations from the proper story. At least they had the spirit of the original tale and I hope it has helped to introduce a few more people to the real thing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I remember when it was in theaters, a few people commented on how his voice was pretty good. Maybe how you perceive it is at least partly based on where you live, and what you're used to hearing? (Or am I completely misremembering that you live in England?)

I agree, though, that they wished they could afford Sean Bean. Probably, they used up too much in Angelina Jolie's paycheck.

I liked that they made the queen a character(and a good one) instead of a passing mention, but the way they had Beowulf lie at least twice about his heroic deeds so people wouldn't know he got distracted by sex made his heroic status really questionable.

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do live in England. I think to a lot of Americans, the only English accent they hear is London, so it sounds like a generic English accent to them. To me, it represents a small part of a specific city, an uneducated class and a very modern mode of speech. All of these make it very unsuitable for Beowulf.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeas, that's what I mean. We only hear a few accents, so it's harder for us to tell when an accent is inappropriate for a role. It's rather like how much of the better known US stuff is set in New York City and Las Angeles, and the surrounding areas. I know I can't watch most shows and movies set in Texas or about Texans, because the accents tend to make me cringe.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Beowulf is kinda weird territory, because it's unfaithful enough to practically be Beowulf In Name Only (how a tale about "here is how a hero should act, modestly and nice!" became a cautionary tale about a pig-headed sex fiend I'll never figure. It's like the Starship Troopers movie parodying fascism based on a novel none of the writers read), yet the revisionism only really rears its head in the short third arc, which is mostly dragon-fighting anyway, so there's no time to make it build up to a real point. So it's not a straight enough adaptation to be Beowulf: The Movie and it's not enough of a reimagining to be really interesting on its own merits. So you've got some stuff on Christianity replacing paganism and storytelling and Grendel is kinda developmentally disabled instead of a monster and it ends up being distracting instead of adding up to anything.

Plus, any movie that leaves its audience thinking about Brendan Gleeson having sex with Angelina Jolie really has some 'splaining to do.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's kind of hard to pin down. On the one hand, you watch it and wonder how on earth someone could interpret the poem that way. But then they kinda...do cool things. Then make you scratch your head.

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's a really neat capsule. I haven't seen it but I like your deconstruction.

It's like the Starship Troopers movie parodying fascism based on a novel none of the writers read.

I don't know why I saw the movie but I did. I still haven't recovered, although I do love me some Clancy Brown. Then I read the book (having never read any Heinlein before) and was just floored. That was 10 years ago, but isn't the book mostly military philosophy and lectures? I really enjoyed it but they didn't have much to do with each other, except maybe setting. The only hint of the awesome in the book were the commercials at the end of the movie, advertising the military.

I'm more intrigued to see Beowulf now than I was when it played right across the street from my apartment.

[valkyriesailor.livejournal.com]

Personally I didn't like this. I watched it together with a friend but it was worse then imaged. u.u We saw the 3D version, and the whole time I couldn't understand why they think it's natural to zoom out???!?!?!
Then the character of Beowulf... Heavens let me NEVER meet a person like that. u.u" The only thing I got from this movie was the message: foolness and heroism often get confused.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The interpretation of Beowulf's heroism is strange, and a direct contradiction, in many ways, of his original personality. It's like they had the idea that all heroes are really sex hungry braggarts, and ran with it.

[valkyriesailor.livejournal.com]

Quite a cross interpretation. ~.~ I still like my heroes courageous, like from a fairy tale... Maybe I just can't adapt to the modern worlds ideas~ and I'm really glad about that too.
Not that I'm an enermy of sex-drive, but I think sex hungry is more of a term for an animal and not a thinking human being.

[lostopenwindows.livejournal.com]

I basically looked a big question mark when I saw this in the theaters.

1) I had no idea that it was animated and the first 15 minutes I thought that the animation was just a stylistic, temporary thing just like some movies start off black and white and then switch the color.

2) I kept going "What? Why?" at Angelina Jolie's built in high heels.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize it was animated, but I think I'd been told before but forgot, so it wasn't as much of a shock.

The high heals were weird. Actually, a lot about her character was weird.

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

*curious* Have you ever read Grendel by John Gardner (http://www.amazon.com/Grendel-John-Gardner/dp/0679723110/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216907500&sr=8-1)?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Nope. Why?

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

If you want to add another book to your list, I'd highly recommend it. It's the beginning of the Beowulf story (through Grendel's death) through Grendel's point of view. It's a wonderful little book, not even 200 pages, and densely packed. Grendel doesn't see the characters the same way as they're portrayed in the original epic.

There's religious speculation, and Grendel seriously screws with some characters, then sits back and laughs at them. We read it in high school after reading Beowulf. I actually plan to do a re-read soon, there was a lot I missed despite having read it a couple times since then. Apparently each chapter is based on a sign of the zodiac (which I ignored in high school) and I want to follow that logic.

I know you have lots to read, but thought I'd rec it.

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

I did not like this movie....I left the cinema during the scene where Grendel was on a killing rampage. I only got to finish this when I watched it online. Then...the image of the King almost naked got stuck in my head for days...arrrgggh!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Uhm...yes. Did not want that image. At all.