Review of Beowulf & Grendel (2005) by Philipp C — 05 Feb 2010

Pretty decent adventure film without a lick of special effects(aside from costumes), that goes for gritty realism making Grendle a gaint of a man with some kind of testosterone disorder(so he has a beard even as a boy) who lives feral in caves until some wicked Danes kill his daddy.

Then the "troll" seeks revenge, but only on those who wronged him. Gerard Butler shows up as the titular hero to kill the beast, but Grendle doesnt want to fight him. Like Zemekis' version two years later there is a good deal of humor here, and discussion of Christianity's encroaching influence, and how that will inevitably play into the legend.

The best thing about this movie is the location shooting all in Iceland I beleive. Butler's Beawulf doesn't hate Grendle and spends much of the film with Sarah Polley's sarcastic red haired witch trying to figure out the "why's" and "how's" for the Grendle fued in the first place.

He would rather not fight the "troll" but accepts bieng fated to do so begrudgingly. Butler's hero is less of an egomaniac than Zemekis' version, and the scenery and dialog is much better, but to Zemekis' credit his action tops this films.

As clever as the Great Hall battle sequences are they pale in comparison to the giant CG abortion(Im not making a joke that's what it looked it) and a little CG man dancing around naked with his junk always barely obscured.

They are both fun movies niether one saying much more than the other, but this is closer to "Predator", where the other is closer to "Avatar". It was an above decent attempt at an action "epic", which in the days when "epics" are seemingly everywhere is a welcome suprise.