Errands and "Beowulf"
Nov. 23rd, 2007 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugeeJust got in from running a couple of errands and seeing one of the three movies I really, really want to see (the other two being "I Am Legend" and "Hitman" [really!]). I bumped into my good friend "Jake the blind guy" on my way into Wal-Mart, and I should have heeded his warning not to go in there: I got stuck in a line to buy the gift cards I was getting for the Giving Tree at St. Francis.
Also priced the fabric we need for the Jane Austen gown we're having made for my Christmas present.
And now, what you've been waiting for...
Also priced the fabric we need for the Jane Austen gown we're having made for my Christmas present.
And now, what you've been waiting for...
In a nutshell: "300" meets Lord of the Rings, but that does not do justice to how visually impressive this movie really is. Once you get past the fact that the entire movie is performance capture (it seemed they decided it worked better to have everything CGI, not just the monsters), the visuals become that much more incredible.
And I have to give two very high thumbs up to Neil Gaiman's job on the script: he took a text that's usually been beaten to death in Senior Year English Lit and breathed new life into it. Beowulf here is a little bit less of a hero and a much more human figure than he's generally made out to be, and the monsters -- particularly Grendel -- become more human and even pitiable at times. And I don't care what the critics say about Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mother, or the fact that the character has been reenvisioned as a shape-shifting Lamia-like being: she's scarier for being so much more tantalizing, and that's one of the hallmarks of genuine evil, from a theological perspective. It might seem lovely and desirable, but that's the bait to trap the unsuspecting...
And I have to give two very high thumbs up to Neil Gaiman's job on the script: he took a text that's usually been beaten to death in Senior Year English Lit and breathed new life into it. Beowulf here is a little bit less of a hero and a much more human figure than he's generally made out to be, and the monsters -- particularly Grendel -- become more human and even pitiable at times. And I don't care what the critics say about Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mother, or the fact that the character has been reenvisioned as a shape-shifting Lamia-like being: she's scarier for being so much more tantalizing, and that's one of the hallmarks of genuine evil, from a theological perspective. It might seem lovely and desirable, but that's the bait to trap the unsuspecting...