Negative Positive
Title: Flawed in the Re-telling
Review: There are many good things in this movie: The actual characters from the Epic, the basic setting, the intense violence, Grendel, even Grendel's mother. However, and I admit that I am biased here,I just don't think you can re-write a mythic tale that has survived for 1000 years to satisfy a modern director's idea of a good plot.This movie is not Beowulf, it is a movie based upon the Beowulf epic. As such, it changes the central theme of the actual epic: The war between heaven hell being fought on earth as a struggle between good and evil, man and monster. I suppose that modern ideas of heroism can not accept the mythic heroism of the epic, but I feel that those very ideas are what make the original epic a truly great story.Taking those elements out make this movie a morality tale about a false hero reaching redemption at last. The movie reflects the cynicism of the modern era I suppose, but it loses the epic qualities of the original poem.
Is the review positive or negative? 