Beowulf and Grendel - Movie

[avisarr]

I and Mark Price just got back from seeing a movie called "Beowulf and Grendel". Have any of you European folks seen it? It hasn't really been released here in the United States, but it is playing in a local film festival here and we were lucky enough to get tickets. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already been released in Europe somewhere.

It was pretty good. It stars Gerard Butler and Stellan Skarsgard and Sarah Polley. If you get the chance, it's worth 2 hours of your time. The only thing I didn't like about it was Sarah Polley... I think she was miscast. Also, some of the dialogue smacked of 20th century slang. I think it should have been a bit more "period".

That's one thing that often separates mediocre fantasy from great fantasy... the language and dialogue. It's something that I'm still trying to master. There are many areas of Khoras that could stand to be written better and I often will touch up and rewrite sections. Still... many to go.

There was one line in particular at the beginning of this movie that I liked a lot. The hero, while giving a speech to his small band of warriors, says "Danes don't swing words when swords speaker truer". I liked that line a lot. Now, if only they could have kept that kind of flavor. Unfortunately, the dialogue was inconsistent. Still, it was gorgeous scenery (the entire thing was filmed in Iceland). Absolutely beautiful. If Norway and Denmark are that rugged and beautiful, then I am envious of you Nordic folk.

The movie was pretty faithful to the original epic, if you'd read it. Although they did add a bit here and there to the story. Overall, not a bad movie. Catch it if you can.

[tanis]

     Cool, I love the whole story of Beowulf, Grendel, the mother of Grendel, and the Dragon.