The movie version of “Beowulf” will come out on November 16. Not only does it feature Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s formidable mom, it utilizes new methods of combining live action with computer animation that some say may revolutionize filmmaking. We shall see about that. But the trailer looks promising:
Beowulf: The Movie
November 9th, 2007 | Movies
11 comments ↓
I was excited about this movie … so excited that I recently reread Beowulf (the Seamus Heaney translation). I really do hope you’re right. But the trailer actually makes me leary. Is this another example of taking a basically Christian story — one that deeply influenced Tolkein — and transmogrifying it into a sexed-up pagan tale?
It does look interesting, and I love the poem. Funny, though; I don’t remember Beowulf riding the dragon before he killed it
I figure I’ll probably see it, if the reviews aren’t completely negative. Angelina Jolie has always seemed pretty monstrous, in my humble view. But it would have to work hard to be worse than the recent, straight-to-DVD Canadian/Icelandic effort which made Beowulf, essentially, the bad guy.
Well, on the one hand I am happy to see a classic like Beowulf getting attention in pop culture but I an nervous that they will screw it up to the point that it becomes just another generic fantesy tale.
The preview looks awfully, strangely video-gamish to me, which undoubtedly has wide appeal these days.
I only know how outnumbered I am on that point.
Wake me up when the filmmaking revolution, towards the viewing tastes of jr. high boys and techno-geeks, is over.
cf. Uncanny valley.
Hmmm….if that’s “promising,” can I opt out of any such promises? Sorry, but somehow the justaposition of heavy metal, “come hither” dialogue, and Dark Ages metaphor just doesn’t quite do it for me.
What this really means is that hip parents will start naming their baby boys “Beowulf.”
Their could be worse things, Altar Guild. And it might pave the way fro me to name my next son Kvendolf. But I doubt it, I can’t even get my wife to agree to Ragnar.
I love the poem (the Heaney version is good, but I also like Burton Raffel’s), and so I got really excited when I heard about this movie…
…but then I watched the trailer. And they seem to have ruined it. There are lots of muscleman-monster-and-an-affair movies, and I wish they’d left Beowulf alone–or else done the story properly.
Looks good to me. I’m going to catch it on the opening weekend. I read it in high school and have always remembered the voice of a true scholar who visited us and read some of it in the original language. ThhhAT VAS AH GOUHD KUNIG.
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