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[KharBevNor]

That's the one. Middle english looks like this:

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

Whilst Old English looks like this:

Swa sceal geong guma gode gewyrcean,
fromum feohgiftum on fæder bearme,
þæt hine on yld eft gewunigen
wilgesiþas, þonne wig cume,
leode gelæsten; lofdædum sceal

in mægþa gehwære man geþeon.
Him ða Scyld gewat to gescæphwile
felahror feran on frean wære.
Hi hyne þa ætbæron to brimes faroðe,
swæse gesiþas, swa he selfa bæd.

Basically, any fairly well educated person can read Middle English (especially if you have some French or German). Old English, on the other hand, is pretty much an ancient German dialect.

[monkandmovies13]

Yeah. I knew the difference, but I've never actually read Beowulf and don't know too much about it. So I got a little confused...

[Dimmukane]

I think it was sort of a blend of old and middle English, actually...there were a few words he spoke which were definitely not in anyway Germanic.  But yeah, I guess it gets some points for that.  All my dumb friends were like "why is he talking funny" and "he must be some kind of retarded inbred or something".

[KvP]

I wouldn't be surprised if Crispin Glover demanded that he be able to speak in Old English. That is, if he wasn't chosen for Grendel after the script was written.

[imapiratearg]

Canterbury Tales verse.

Middle English is fun to speak.  Especially Chaucer.

[SusurrusIgnoramus]

I don't know why so many of you hated it so much.

In the time the story was written/ transcribed there really was very little character development used in stories.  And if you think about it, Beowulf was probably one of the first "action heroes", so it makes sense that it was an action film.  And the cheesey dialogue about violating virgins and all that... that was par for the course back then.

They HAD to change things from the original.  If they did a 100% faithful adaptation, it would be a VERY boring film.

Grendel a zombie?  I don't know where you're getting that.  For me, he was nigh on terrifying.  That scream... and the pulsating eardrum... drool... and all the carnage at the begining.  From what I remember, there never really was a good description of what Grendel looked like, so they just took liberties.

I love how you saw Grendel's mother as a monster only in reflections... it gave her a lot more mystery and made her creepier.

*spoiler*

I also love how they linked the parts with grendel and his mother to the dragon.  And the whole thing where Hrothgar was Grendel's father and Beowulf was the dragon's... a brilliant choice (I would like to think Neil thought that up, but probably not).

*end spoiler*

the 3D was cool at first, but I sort of forgot it was there after a while.  Oh, and the Coraline teaser trailer?  It teased me TOO much... if you don't know what it is, you really don't get any idea from the trailer.  But I can't wait to see it.

[imapiratearg]

I also love how they linked the parts with grendel and his mother to the dragon.  And the whole thing where Hrothgar was Grendel's father and Beowulf was the dragon's... a brilliant choice (I would like to think Neil thought that up, but probably not).

What?  That's completely absurd.

[Cartilage Head]

 I would like to see (and ridicule) how they pulled that plot twist off.

[imapiratearg]

Grendel is supposed to be the spawn of Cain and the dragon protects a treasure from a civilization that preceded Beowulf's Geats.

[SusurrusIgnoramus]

i'm aware of that.  all i'm saying is, having two completely detached plots like that would seem out of place in the movie.  so, i like how they conected the two.

you guys are acting like the book was a seamlessly crafted masterpiece to begin with... it was transcribed from pre-christian oral tradition... which probably had counless different versions, then the transcriber(s) added christian bits... then all but one copy of it was lost, and even then, it was partially burned... so what if they took liberties?  it's an entertaining movie.  if you want the exact story as we have it, read the book.

[TheFuriousWombat]

i'm aware of that.  all i'm saying is, having two completely detached plots like that would seem out of place in the movie.  so, i like how they conected the two.

you guys are acting like the book was a seamlessly crafted masterpiece to begin with... it was transcribed from pre-christian oral tradition... which probably had counless different versions, then the transcriber(s) added christian bits... then all but one copy of it was lost, and even then, it was partially burned... so what if they took liberties?  it's an entertaining movie.  if you want the exact story as we have it, read the book.

Oh....I thought you were being sarcastic when you said you loved that part. Trying to make the plot coherent is fine but taking such absurd liberties as Grendel being the father of the dragon (that seems to be what your post said and I still hope I'm reading it wrong) is fairly insane and, to be kinda blunt, stupid.

[Dissy]

I read Beowulf for fun nearly a decade ago.  I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

I like Zemekis, I think he's a pretty good director, I just hope he stays away from Quantum Mechanics and time paradoxes.

[Boro_Bandito]

I'm not entirely sure how you got that, but if that is in fact what he's saying Grendel was definitely not the father of the dragon.

What do you mean Hrothgar was Grendel's father? or that Beowulf was the dragon's father? What? Grendel is descended from Cain, and the way it goes in the 1960's book Grendel, the dragon is as old as time, knows all time, including his own death, and gave Grendel his power of not being able to be hurt by any sword. If they wanted coherence and connectivity, they should have gone with that.

[TheFuriousWombat]

I mis-typed. I meant to type "Beowulf was the father of the dragon" in disbelief because that is indeed what the post says: "the whole thing where Hrothgar was Grendel's father and Beowulf was the dragon's." Correct me if I'm wrong but...this is ridiculous.

[MusicScribbles]

I'm disappointed in Neil Gaiman. I liked Stardust a lot and this sounds like a step back from the potential shown in Stardust.

[Dimmukane]

Gaiman wasn't the only screenwriter, and it kinda shows.  I wouldn't mind it's negligence to the original story (which I believe was Gaiman's intention), if it weren't for all the crap that was thrown in there quite clearly by the other guy.  Gaiman wouldn't write in a ten-minute running gag about Beowulf being naked and conveniently 'covered' by candles, swords, food, furniture, people, etc.

[TheFuriousWombat]

That scene kinda makes you wonder how many times the writers watched The Simpson's Movie.

[Thrillho]

Honestly I thought this film's 'unique' production style was utterly pointless. 'We motion captured these actors performing these entire scenes and then computer animated them.'


...WHY?

Quite apart from which, I don't actually think the animation looks very good. It's not human enough to look realistic, and it's not computery enough to just look computery.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Wait wait wait, guys I cleared up the whole "how is Beowulf the dragon's father?" thing. Really it's quite simple. So, you see, instead of killing Grendel's mother, Beowulf just has lots and lots of sex with her. She makes him, you see. Plus she can shape shift. Obviously the kid of a He-man-esque Norse warrior and a really horny shape shifting monster/woman thing would be a dragon. I'm glad it makes sense after all.

[Orbert]

I just figured that since the mom is a demon, most demons can shape-shift anyway, and we were specifically shown that she can shape-shift, that it would follow that her offspring could shape-shift as well. We don't exactly know that Beowulf's child was a dragon; what we know is that the creature was in the form of a dragon. If you're planning on doing some serious damage, you take the form of something huge that can fly and breathe fire, right?

[Inlander]

Only if you had some industrial-strength throat lozenges back home.

[onewheelwizzard]

I really enjoyed what they did with the plot.  Here's why:

1. Beowulf was a believable character.  I mean, obviously he was just a big dumb action hero, but in this movie (unlike in the poem) he actually acted like a human being to a certain extent.  His flaws made him real.

2. The symbolic link between Hrothgar's (lack of) majesty and Grendel's appearance, and between Beowulf's renown and the dragon's power, was really cool.  I quite like the way they tied those two formerly unrelated plot points together and completely reinvented the nature of the myth.

3. The climactic battle was freaking cool.

4. The way they presented Wiglaf was perfect.

It basically was just a moving version of a really fucking awesome graphic novel revision of the Beowulf story.  I mean, it's just a comic book in movie form.  But it was a comic book I'd definitely read.

[PatentAbsurdity]

I thought the visuals were gorgeous, actually.

On the other hand, I ended up seeing it with my mom because all my friends live in different parts of the state, and it's kind of hard to enjoy any movie when she keeps poking me and asking me to explain the plot. Especially since I've never read Beowulf, and I only know enough of the story to tell that they were making half of it up.

Also? That visual gag where they kept blocking his junk?
My mom was sitting next to me and rooting for them to show something already. Listening to your mom talk abut a CGI figure like he's a male stripper is seriously uncanny.