MR - Beowulf & Grendel

Beowulf & Grendel


Beowulf - Gerard Butler ... my previous exposure was LCTR: Cradle of Life

Hrothgar - Stellan Skarsgard ... POTC: Dead Man's Chest

Grendel - Ingvar Sigursson ... new actor

Selma - Sarah Polley ... also new actor to me

Hondscioh - Tony Curran ... I last saw him in Blade II

Music by Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson


The film looks beautiful, which makes sense since a lot of it was filmed in Iceland.

The acting was, for the most part, good. My only complaints in this category are:
- no subtitles and the accents and muttering could run together making the speaker all but incomprehensible. I think I caught 3/4 of the speeches.
- Sarah Polley, half the time she was awesome, half the time it was like she was only reading the script ... I can only assume direction failure for these moments.

I'm a big Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan, and agreed to watch this mostly because Gerard Butler and Tony Curran were in the film. I enjoyed the film and don't feel that my time was wasted. Admittedly, it won't be going on my keeper shelf (which houses Blade I-III, LCTR: I and II, and POTC: I and II). It is not something I would watch over again, though I'd listen to a commentary.

I've never read the Beowulf story, and don't know how faithfully the film was adapted. However, I suspect, from the storyline of Selma, that the screenwriters took a lot of artistic license with the original.

Finally, the language in the film is a bit crude, perhaps locker room lite. It didn't bother me, though it probably would have bothered a younger me (I've since read and thoroughly enjoyed Selina Rosen's Queen of Denial and Recycled ... that's one mouthy Barion Queen).