Movie Review "Beowulf and Grendel"

There are many movies out there based on books. Some are really good, others are terrible. These movies either follow a book’s story line almost word for word, or the movie director is able to portray the main idea (names, places, events, etc.) and add their own ideas. Beowulf and Grendel was the second option, and I felt that it was a terrible movie. Over the weeks before watching this movie, I was able to read this epic poem in my English class. I thought that Beowulf was a great poem. Beowulf was a great hero, different from how we portray heroes today.

                Beowulf has a lot of religious symbolism. The director of Beowulf and Grendel decided to expand on that. He added a Celtic Witch, a Christian Monk, and a lot of big buff men that believed in Norse Mythology. These three beliefs create an interesting conflict with in the movie. Most of these conflicts included long boring speeches, but the victor seemed to be Christianity due to many of the buff men being baptized throughout the movie. To me the religious conflict in this movie was pointless, and boring. The Celtic Witch seeing when people would die, and the Believers of Norse Mythology giving into Christianity.

                I thought that the plot of Beowulf was ruined in the movie Beowulf and Grendel. Instead of being a prideful man that fought for fame, Beowulf was an ordinary man with feelings, and could believe that not all monsters are evil. This was not the Beowulf I had hoped to see. The director even added a love story into the mess he created. But I feel that the worst change made was Grendel. Instead of being a monster people see in nightmares, Grendel was a troll, or, a very hairy human. He turned Grendel from a monster to a semi human with good intentions. This changed the plot, and, for me, ruined the movie.

                I did not like the movie Beowulf and Grendel. I felt that all of the changes made the movie horrible. I might have been able to enjoy this movie if I had never read the poem, but over all I felt that this movie was a waste of time. I feel that if the director stuck to the original plot, the movie would have been much better.