- Matthew Gabriele "actually kind of liked the movie."
- Gaiman is happy to spread the ancient story, and Andy Orchard agrees.*
- Tim Machen argues that "such reinvention has helped keep the poem alive"
- Kate Laity says the film is "utter pants." No, that's not a good thing.
- Dr. Virago calls the film "a sloppy disaster of disorganization, hastiness, illogic, and misreading."
- UPDATE: Also, this review from a student at my showing. In fact, I spilled my popcorn on her. Really.
*In this article, Gaiman "said it's probably a good thing he and Avary opted against subtitles for Grendel, who speaks barely comprehensible Old English, because 'This way we give them [scholars] one thing that they can be happy about because if you really want to understand everything in that film you are going to have to take an Anglo-Saxon scholar along to translate for you.'" Um, I for one could barely understand them (particularly Grendel's whispering), and I happen to be an Anglo-Saxon scholar. I was kind of wishing for subtitles.
Your footnote re: the OE-speaking Grendel cracks me up, because all of my students -- from my *Old English* class -- turned to me afterwards and said, "What did he say? I knew it was Old English, but..." Yeah, me too. I did catch, "Men make noise and my head hurts," but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteAs for your summary of my review, while that quote is accurate and is (partly) what I think, I *also* thought it had potential that it didn't quite make good on, and the bit you quote isn't really the thesis of my review, since I concentrated on the female characters. Just want people to know this before they click over -- you don't have to change anything and I'm not really getting on your case for once again misunderstanding me. ;-) (I tease!)
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ReplyDeleteAnd actually, those words really apply to the "classic B- paper" I compared the movie to in an analogy, which also has, as I said, "smart moments of insight." Just saying.
ReplyDelete"Mordor?!" repeatedly -- this isn't Lord of the Rings! Is "modor" really that hard to say, Mr. Glover?
ReplyDeleteYeah, Dr. V., but the "sloppy disaster" line is so much cooler than "smart moments of insight!"
ReplyDeleteAaargh ... perhaps in looking for the best tagline for the link, I am guilty of "hastiness, illogic, and misreading."
Another review...
ReplyDeletehttp://sceopellen.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/beowulf-the-movie-inaccuracies/
good!!
ReplyDelete