Beowulf!

[PigsnieLite]

Has anyone seen a review yet of this movie? The trailers are sooo AWESOME! I really want to see this! Its the first movie Ive been interested since my mummy went to heaven.

[Avril]

I've seen the promo. First preview I'll get to see will be in two weeks.

Not entirely sure about a digitalised Ray Winstone, even though he is a sexy beast. I prefer him in his unadorned gritty realism.

Even less sure about Angelina as Grendel's mother. My images are from the reading of sundry Beowulf translations (Beowulf Michael Alexander, Penguin Classics), offshoots (Grendel by John Gardner) and fictionalised versions from Dragon Slayer: The story of Beowulf by Rosemary Sutcliff to Michael Crichton's The Thirteenth Warrior, both book and film.

Grendel's progenitrix remains for me a stinking, loathesome, shapeless, rapacious cannibal, dripping with human juices newly sucked from hapless corpses. Can't quite get Angelina Jolie into that shape, no matter how hard I try. Guess that's Hollywood for you, though I'm again not sure why one would want to sanitise a monster of such huge box-office potential unless it's to change the story by adding seduction to Beowulf's trials.

And though director Zemeckis' Polar Express was awesome technology for the time, it was definitely weird to watch. This even more up-to-the-minute digitalisation seems to be romanticising a classic, turning dark primordial fear into nothing more than pop-corn.

I wonder what David Cronenberg would have made of it.

That being said, I'm looking forward to seeing it all the same.

[PigsnieLite]

Wuz Angelina wearing ancient stilettos in the promos? Guess Zemeckis forgot that there no Blahniks in those days? Also wuz that a snake or extra long braids waving behind Angies spectacular legs? Heh. BTW, Ray Winstone looks pretty gritty, even digitalized. Didnt know Grendels mum drooled a lot? I never read the poem, or if I did, I probably promptly forgot it. I read somewhere too that Anthony Hopkins did his part without a beard, and he wuz shocked when he saw himself on the screen, quite hirsute!

[Avril]

No stilettos. Just walking on her toes to accent her spectacular calf muscles. A long braid, I think, though it does make her look serpentine. It might be the only reference to her luciferic connection, her genetic descent from Cain.

In the poem she's an ogress, only slightly less strong than Grendel, but enraged by his death to superhuman bloodthirsty vengeance.

The story's been changed from the original. The focus, at least in the trailer, now appears to be seduction and temptation of a Mephistophelean deal of greatness rather than the fear of an inhuman predator coming out of the dark and tearing sleeping warriors limb from limb.

In the original, Beowulf's slaying of the monster was greatness enough. Guess the writers thought Angelina was more of a challenge. And here I was thinking she was easy.

[funmusicgirl]

I think it looks ridiculous, if anyone makes it out to see it let me know how it is.

[PigsnieLite]

WHy does it look widiculous, Miss FunMusic Girl?

[welshdotcomfairy]

Just seen a piece on BBC news about Beowulf. They were showing the stars of the film on the red carpet in London, being snapped away at and of Course Angelina Jolie getting a lot of attention. But apart from her going on about how good she looked in the film, I was sort of taken aback by seeing Anthony Hopkins being interviewed about it.

Now their words were "Anthony Hopkins, now nearing 70, was interviewed after the film as to why he decided to make his character welsh". Well as you know I'm welsh, and I also think Anthony Hopkins is wonderful. But one thing did catch my eye. He had a lady stood with him, probably half his age, and I'm wondering whether that was his wife/significant other. If it was, she looked rather rediculous because she was stood there grinning as though they were interviewing her. Batting her eyelashes as though all cameras were on her and everyone wanted to see her at her best. I'd have to point out that had I not thought "who is that?" I wouldn't have noticed her at all! lol.

I don't think the film looks rediculous - I'm looking forward to seeing it because I'm wondering whether making Angelina Jolie into some glamourpuss is going to work. I've also seen a few snippets of it, and I'd rather have seen Ray Winstone looking a bit more realistic and not like a rough supermodel lol.

[PigsnieLite]

I think *batting ones eyelashes* is whut one is supposed to do when one is married to somebody world-famous & nobody gives a shite about the spouse's opinion, hahaha! Yes, thats his 3rd wifey alright, and frankly, I still remember his 2nd wifey and I liked her a lot better than this new one. But I guess actors always haf to go through a whole harem of wifes & almost-wifes before they find THE ONE. Fegghhh. I AM SLASHER! PLite shrieks as he waves his fork menacingly from the chandelier.

[welshdotcomfairy]

Mind you - you can see how he finds wives. He is nearly 70 and he STILL looks bloody good. (Welsh swoons a little bit)

[TriCo]

I'll definitely watch this one.. I'm a sucker for Angelina's movies..