Beowulf and Grendel

The most recent cinematic tale on this age old saga, this Gerald Butler starring flick hails from 2005.

A Canadian - Icelandic coproduction, it tried to feature as many dialogues in the Old English of the poem version of the 1800s...

... which is both it's strength and it's weakness.

The story is well known.  The King of the Danes, Hrothgar, kills a troll man, and his now orphaned son Grendel plots revenge.  Beowulf arrvives with 13 Geats, warriors of the neighbouring Geatland, to hunt and slay the monster, but the monster refuses to fight him as Beowulf has not wronged it.

With the aid of a witch and an irish priest, they find Grendel's home, and after he attacks the village later that night manage to defeat hom, fatally wounding Grendel.  His mother, the Sea Hag, comes back to extract her vengeance, but is defeated by Beowulf.

The movie is very lovely looking from a scenery and cinegraphic point of view, but suffers from the aforementioned dialogue.  While this might be good in a centuries year old poem, it doesn`t work for the movie, coming over stiff and stale at times.
The same goes for a lot of the (supporting) actors unfortunatly, making this not the best out there... in a way, I think the 13th Warrior is still the best take on the story to watch honestly, even though it moves far from the source material.

Rating: 4 / 10