Posts: 1,812 Location: Orlando metro area, Florida, USA
Sat 04 Aug, 2007 8:25 am
| David Huggins wrote: |
| Lets hope the '1066 The Movie' project can get of the ground and be given the green light, if they stick to Chris Collingwood's illustrations they can't go too wrong.....No Hollywoodisation, no Braveheart or King Arthur please.... |
One can hope. I recommend that you keep your expectations low, however.
Posts: 1,082 Location: Finland
Sat 04 Aug, 2007 8:26 am
| Nathan Keysor wrote: |
| I own the Beowulf and Grendel movie also. I bought it mostly because I liked the helmets that Valentine Armoury made for the film. I have not seen the Christopher Lambert Grendel movie but if i recall it was a futuristic Grendel interpretation. I was tempted to see it due to a feeling of loyalty to Mr Lambert for the original Highlander but the preview looked baddddd. |
Heh. It's... "interesting". :D
I'll just cite my own IMDB review, if you don't mind:
| A late '80s action flick from the late '90s wrote: |
Honestly, without looking at the production details, I would never have guessed this film wasn't made in the eighties. It's so eighties I feel it perfectly epitomizes the beloved "'80s action B-movie" genre despite being made a full decade too late. And knowing the extremes B-movies actually from the eighties can go to, that's saying A LOT.
It has Chris Lambert playing Billy Idol in a long black leather coat playing Beowulf; Rhona Mitra, "The original model behind Lara Croft in Tomb Raider!"; the kind of ingenious/insane mix of pseudo-medieval, post-apocalyptic and modern fashion and technology I haven't seen since Knights (and that's another one for the B-movie history books); a rather nice, if forgettable, techno soundtrack; more somersaults than you can shake a lever-action clockwork sword at; and Grendel's HOT MOMMA!
I think Beowulf would have approved. It gets the attitude right, and that's what counts - to quote the poem, Chapter IX, "Me thus often the evil monsters/ Thronging threatened. With thrust of my sword,/ The darling, I dealt them due return!" (The full text of Beowulf is available at http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/ )
And, by the way, let's not forget that dirty little chuckle Lambert has perfected. I loved it when he played Raiden in Mortal Kombat, and I absolutely love it here. |
I gave it the full ten stars, for the record...
Posts: 411 Location: Göteborg Sweden
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 7:12 am
:) So its released on cinema and games, all i have read about it is about the graphic 3D effect,
anti christian and all blood, not yet anything about arms and armor, but i find an sword from it
the one who have the name "Hrunttin" (spelling and bad listening :) ) in this
Amazon.com site,
you can see and hear it in film clips in video section, in ancestral sword on
the Beowulf site, allways something. :cool:
[ Linked Image ]
Posts: 122
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 7:29 am
All in all i rather liked this movie. maybe because i went in with the lowest of low expectations, who knows. there were some radical departures from the poem but i still think it was pretty good in its own right. The computer animation was nice, there was lots of blood (as in the original), but i missed the *anti* christianness of it.
the swords (except Hrunting) were a pretty good representation of many Germanic styles of many time periods.
unfortunately there was some plate armor but hey, thats hollywood.
Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 8:00 am
| Joe Yurgil wrote: |
All in all i rather liked this movie. maybe because i went in with the lowest of low expectations, who knows. there were some radical departures from the poem but i still think it was pretty good in its own right. The computer animation was nice, there was lots of blood (as in the original), but i missed the *anti* christianness of it.
the swords (except Hrunting) were a pretty good representation of many Germanic styles of many time periods.
unfortunately there was some plate armor but hey, thats hollywood. |
Well one could find anti-christianness in it if one looks really really hard for it: Mostly that when a character suggest asking the new Christian God for help as well as the ancient gods, the king says something to the effect that Gods are not going to help if men aren't ready to help themselves ! The Kings attitude is sort of dismissive and unconvinced about how useful the new God or religion might be: Not very unusual I think for an unconverted barbarian King maybe ? As well this King doesn't seem to be putting much faith in his old gods either. :lol:
I saw it In 3D IMAX and the 3D works much better than in some 3D films where it's just a gimmick and gets overused.
Little mini review by me copied from a personal e-mail I sent to a close friend:
" Oh, good use of 3D by the way and they give you much better
3D glasses at the door than they used to: Not the cheap cardboard
ones or the HUGE ones that looked like a welders mask .... LOL.
Great eye candy and it may actually be fairly true to the original
legend. Not sure that I was emotionally engaged by the story.
The almost but not quite digital reality is at the strange middle
ground were I would rather see it pushed to total realism or pulled
back a touch to more of an animated style ....... maybe ? Not
really sure how I feel about it ! Sort of reminds me of 300 but with
the actors digitized as well as the backgrounds and effects. "
I would add that I saw the live action Beowulf that came out last year that is a much different film in style and much closer to a realistic treatment of the story.
As to the " true " to the original legend/saga I can't really comment as I never really read an accurate modern translation of the epic: So I can't comment about how far this version strayed or not from the original.
Very graphic novel or computer game aesthetics but the greatly over the top action might be said to be true to the exaggerated prowess that might be told around a camp fire by boastful warriors or exaggerated embellished by a bard telling the story in period ( maybe :lol: ).
Glad I saw it, ambivalent about how much I would recommend it or want to see it again. :confused: :D
Last edited by Jean Thibodeau on Sat 17 Nov, 2007 6:08 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 8:06 am
| Joe Yurgil wrote: |
| unfortunately there was some plate armor but hey, thats hollywood. |
Oh, the plate armour looks more like leather muscle cuirass of Roman inspiration to me ? Metal or leather is hard to tell but my bet is leather. In any case since it's all digitized the " cost " would be the same making the breast plate look like steel: So, the intent was probably to portray them as hardened leather over maille shirts.
Fortunately, the armour is not 15th century full plate harness as seen in the old 1980's EXCALIBUR movie. :p :lol:
Posts: 159 Location: Metrowest Boston
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 12:19 pm
Regarding the anti-Christian theme, I thought scholars had determined that there was a Christian "overlay" in the middle section of the Epic poem that was not part of the original saga (I'm trying not to pull another "dying Gaul" debacle here)... granted removing the "non-original" would yield a very pagan-oriented movie... but since I haven't seen anything of it, perhaps I'm speaking out of turn. Was this a reference to the pagan nature of the original tale, or is this actively anti-Christian?
I'm actually looking forward to the movie, although I'm not too keen on some of the "star power" involved.
I just caught "Beowulf and Grendel" on disc... and thought that was a fairly effective telling of the tale, as well as at least having proper enough swords and helmet... not so sure about the armor though it was mostly mail depicted.
Posts: 395
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 1:29 pm
I have one word for this unispired film - GARBAGE
Posts: 190 Location: Burien, WA USA
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 3:57 pm
I have no inner Spielberg.
Posts: 174 Location: West Springfield, Massachusetts
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 5:28 pm
There's one thing that really bother's me about an article I recently read for this new CGI Beowulf movie and videogame. In the article it states that Beowulf takes place sometime during the 8th - 11th century A.D.
But, I thought the old english poem was written around that time period and the events took place somewhere around the late 5th century - mid 6th century A.D. :?:
Correct me if I'm wrong but, It seems to me that someone didn't do there historical research. :mad:
Posts: 19
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 5:54 pm
I definitely enjoyed Beowulf and Grendel. I liked the feel and general aesthetic of it. I also like movies where there isn't rediculously massive armies.
As for the 2007 children's cartoon known as 'Beowulf', any resemblance it bears to the original or to history is purely due to lack of imagination on the part the creators. If they could've thought of something outlandish and rediculous, they would have. That said, I'm seeing it in about an hour. I need to occasionally anethsetize myself from the drudgery of life with a violent and visually appealing spectacle.
The plus side of this movie is that since it is clearly pure fantasy, no one will think it has anything to do with history (hopefully)...
Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 6:14 pm
| Justin Pasternak wrote: |
There's one thing that really bother's me about an article I recently read for this new CGI Beowulf movie and videogame. In the article it states that Beowulf takes place sometime during the 8th - 11th century A.D.
But, I thought the old english poem was written around that time period and the events took place somewhere around the late 5th century - mid 6th century A.D. :?:
Correct me if I'm wrong but, It seems to me that someone didn't do there historical research. :mad: |
At the beginning of the movie they say something or have a graphic up saying that's it's happening in the 5th century.
Posts: 13 Location: South Dakota
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 7:41 pm
I have to say that I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. Probably because I have never read the story, nor had anything resembling the slightest idea how the story was supposed to go. Ignorance is bliss on that one, I suppose.
And I do have to say that I think Angelina slipped nicely into the role of a siren surrounded by mounds of treasure who seduces blonde musclemen in order to have the widest variety of children possible. It seemed to click with her somehow.
And I think I noticed one of the men had a Type 14 sword.
Posts: 26 Location: Knoxville TN
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 9:06 pm
This movie serves well as a monument to everything I hate about Hollywood, and to the lengths they will go to destroy anything original and good.
I have seen three of these movies so far... and I have yet to see the movie "Beowulf".
:wtf:
P.S. The only thing that made it interesting was the theater was filled with a bunch of kids that were watching it for a school project. I guess they had read the book in class because they were talking about how the movie was so messed up. It wound up having "audience participation" and turned into a Dane "Rocky horror picture show".
It may have started when Beowulf tore off Grendel's arm and yelled "I am Beowulf!" and then I yelled "and this is SPARTAAAAA!"
Posts: 3,646 Location: Midwest
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 9:42 pm
The moral of this movie...
Angeline Jolie must be killed before she can spawn more evil and suffering into the world.
Somehow the idea that she is the mother of so much evil just fits her. However, I hate to think how much they must have paid her for perhaps 10 minutes of voice acting (although they did make her CGI breasts nice). If somebody can kill her I'll give them whatever is in my car change tray (joking).
IMO a weak and uninspired ending which distracts from the whole bit; otherwise enjoyable for what it was.
Last edited by Joe Fults on Sat 17 Nov, 2007 11:03 pm; edited 6 times in total
Posts: 3,646 Location: Midwest
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 9:59 pm
BTW the theater was almost empty for the showing.
In fact it looked almost empty for everything!
Not a surprise (really) when it ended up costing the wife, kid and I darn near $50 for the movie theater experience; the main point of which seemed to be to show cool CGI and a semi-naked Angelina Jolie (the gold woman bit was original in Golden Eye but uninspired here, although I'm sure it helped keep the PG rating). I'm not really sure there was much story or acting to go with the killer CGI and hot computer generated actress. Reminds me more than a bit of what happened to PC gaming when graphics started getting really good. Almost in lockstep the stories started to go into the toilet and the prices started climbing. Great eye candy but no substance to the games so the audience evaporated.
Overall I loved paying to watch twenty minutes of Coke, Chrysler, MPAA, Zune and other commercials. Then I loved getting to watch ten minutes of movie previews that were just depressing (even more). Funny that most seemed to be variations of Resident Evil which is overdone and over sequeled in its own right. (Did it actually make any money?) So finally, almost thirty-five minutes after the officially published start time for the movie, I got to watch the ninety minute movie with my family in a lovely theater for $50.
Just try to guess how inclined I am to go watch another movie in a theater now?
Hollywood wonders why!?!?
Last edited by Joe Fults on Sat 17 Nov, 2007 10:08 pm; edited 6 times in total
Posts: 3,646 Location: Midwest
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 10:01 pm
Note: I'm not really down on the movie...it had stiff CGI characters and a weak ending but was fair. Its the theater experience that sucked (and was unfortunately most memorable) at ~$17 per head.
Last edited by Joe Fults on Sat 17 Nov, 2007 11:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posts: 1,903 Location: Toronto
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 10:10 pm
Saw it today. Overall, I also prefer Beowulf & Grendel, although I sort of admire the plot device that allowed them to put in the final Dragon sequence of the original work (missing from B&G) while tying it in with the main story.
One observation (without adding any explicit spoilers): there was an odd parallel between how Grendel looses his arm in both movies (as opposed to the original work) and also what happens to Beowulf near the end. Seems like too much of a coincidence. Maybe some hollywood espionage going on...supposedly the script for B&G was around for quite a few years.
Posts: 141 Location: WI
Sat 17 Nov, 2007 10:58 pm
I thought it was an entertaining movie. I guess it was closer to the original than I was expecting. There were a lot of parts I found funny. Fight scenes were pretty wild, but entertaining. I didn't really like the ending so much either, but wasn't aweful either.
Posts: 462 Location: Northern VA
Sun 18 Nov, 2007 8:43 am
| J.D. Crawford wrote: |
| One observation (without adding any explicit spoilers): there was an odd parallel between how Grendel looses his arm in both movies (as opposed to the original work) and also what happens to Beowulf near the end. Seems like too much of a coincidence. Maybe some hollywood espionage going on...supposedly the script for B&G was around for quite a few years. |
It makes me wonder if sometimes movies end up "rewriting history", in that future interpretations are more inspired by recent interpretations than by the original source material.
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