Who is Beowulf?

Rating: 5/10 (30 September 2008)

I'm so tired of filmmakers not trusting themselves. Beowulf at times is shooting for an honest swords and sorcery epic about a troubled hero, but at other times seems to apologize for the audacity of making a fantasy film. For every moment of awesome battle and refreshing character moment, there's a shoehorned in moment to destroy the characters we've just started to like for no other reason then because it's hip nowadays to believe all mankind is scum. Ridiculous squalor and gratuitous sexuality creeps in to ruin the fun also, as well as a incredibly confusing rant about Christianity. I'm not sure it's fair to call the utter empowerment of Grendel's mother a feminism message, but it seems like that's what they're going for at time, and that too bewildered me. Oh, and they ruined the original story too. It felt like I couldn't enjoy this film without abandoning all faith in humanity and enjoying one self destruction after another. I was left wondering, who was Beowulf, the movie and the character. It seemed to be snatching at something for it to be about, and ultimately failed. There are other inconsistencies. Why do the vikings sometimes speak Danish, sometimes English? Why does Grendel's mother have high heels? Why does everybody doubt Beowulf's story about sea monsters, when they're being attacked by a real demon, and their king slew a dragon? Why can Beowulf see things in his dreams? Why is Grendel different from the dragon? Watch it on mute, and enjoy the only thing it offers...incredible visuals. Sadly, all it comes down is just a blustering tale with nothing inside it.