I'm interested. I'm a fan of the original work. Never read the Gaiman thing.

Post stuff.

I'll be seeing it this weekend. In 3-D.

Tolkien's semi-legendary translation of Beowulf was found rotting at the bottom of a box at Oxford, where it had been for decades, never before published despite being widely praised among Oxford's elder elite as the most poetic of the Beowulf translations.

Michael Drout, an assistant professor of English at Wheaton College and the man who "discovered" the translation in a box of other Tolkien papers, asked permission of the Tolkien estate to publish the material. In 2003 and 2004 he was editing said material, but in 2005 he said, "Unfortunately, the Tolkien Estate has decided to stop going forward with that project for the forseeable future. I am hopeful that things will change, but I don't know when that might happen."

Drout did, however, bring together some of Tolkien's famous Beowulf commentaries in a volume called Beowulf and the Critics (Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Vol. 248). I've read Tolkien's lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," which makes up the core of this colume, and it is interesting stuff. You can get it from AmazWAN here.

I'm going to see this movie. It looks fairly badass.

We are going, if child care works out. I'm just wondering if, as a fan of the original work, I will be pleased with the changes or angry that something this close came out. I've got some idea of the love relationship with Grendel's mother (played by Jolie).

And I was always fascinated by the overtly Christian parts of Beowulf. I'm sure that's taken out.

It would be awesome of the Predator came in and Beowolf had to fight him and then was losing and then Optimus Prime came in and they teamed up and beat Grendel, Predator, and Venom.

Fan turned pro comment.

I think this is faithful to the spirit of the original. It's been 1200 years. Beowulf has to "grow."

What a film, man. What a film. Stunning.

Let me bore you for a moment if I may.

Robert Zemeckis. My favourite director. Back to the Future: my favourite movie. First film I remember seeing at the cinema (I was 10). First movie I ever bought. Who Framed Roger Rabbit: the first film where I realised that the same guy who made that film also made this film, that there were filmmakers I could follow like that. Back to the Future Part II: got me into collecting BTTF stuff and movie merchandise in general. Death Becomes Her: the first movie where I really picked up on what a director did, how the camera moves, things like that. His movies are key, see, in my love of movies. He's an important guy to me.

So.

I was looking forward to Beowulf because I knew Bob would deliver a movie that would bypass my usual disinterest in films of this genre. And, man. What a film.

The motion capture animation is breathtaking. I wasn't one of those people who found Polar Express creepy or its characters dead-eyed, I thought that was a wonderful film, visually incredible. Beowulf takes it further. Just look at those pores... amazing detail, amazing life in these characters. In some shots it's impossible to tell 'em from live action.

Having said that, if this film was live action - some reviews have suggested that the CG is so good it may as well have been - then it wouldn't have this almost-reality tone, this fairy tale, breathtaking style. Part of the wonder of the movie is in the way it's made. Technically, visually, it's a masterpiece. It really is. The trailers don't do it justice, the stills certainly don't. There's a real electricity at work, a warmth, a soul that grabbed me, sucked me in.

Of course, it could just be pretty pictures. But the screenplay is magic. I didn't expect how dark and, at times, subversive it would be - quite a lot of anti-Christianity sentiment on display. I'm not familiar at all with the original poem, although I have had it sitting on my shelf for a couple of years, so I don't know if that's something that originates there but I liked it. The characters have real depth, drawn broadly, but it's affecting stuff. The longer it went on the more I got drawn into this world. Every performance is excellent, but Anthony Hopkins is especially superb.

It's bloody, funny, sexy, erotic in places, exciting, sad... It knocked me out. I'll shut up now.

Go see.

Especially if Angelina Jolie revealed herself *ahem* to be Lara Croft, who'd travelled backwards through time to fight the Grendel.

I saw this tonight and thought it was great as well. It'll please fans of fantasy and I think it's got a toen similar to 300, in that it's all about over-the-top manliness.

I didn't know this was going to be a CG movie either.

Very much looking forward to this....glad to hear good things so far!

The annoying thing is that the only 3D cinema within 100 miles of me has closed...

I saw it in 3-D, and while the effects are spectacular, the best thing I can say is that after several minutes I didn't notice. The filmmaking itself took over. This is a great movie even in 2-D. Robert Zemeckis, Neil Gaiman, and Roger Avary (remember him---the OTHER guy who helped write Pulp Fiction?) They turned a boring Old English heroic poem into a tragic adventure story. Even the fact that millions still read (although most of them unwillingly) The Song of Beowulf a thousand years later becomes a part of the story.

It's a damn shame that because of the rules the Academy has set up, none of the actors in this movie are eligible to receive Oscars. <strike>Sir</strike> Anthony Hopkins is particularly good as Hrothgar. Now I know why Zemeckis cast a 50-year old actor as Beowulf. Ray Winstone is young enough to voice the vitality of a young warrior in his 20's, but old enough to play an elderly Beowulf believably. I don't think a younger actor who has not lived as long as Winstone could pull it off.

I'm shocked at the critics' reviews I've seen on iMDB. Man do those guys SO not get it!!!

It's been several years since this came out... but I still remember the epic lines -- "I am ripper. Slasher. Gouger. I am the teeth in the darkness, I am the talons in the night. Mine is strength, and lust, and power. I. AM. BEOWULF."

Okay. That seemed to come out of nowhere.

Not really. I'm all about Thor, Beowulf is of Nordic mythology.

I've gotten in the mood also. I've decided for my next painting to do a Fazzetta-type barbarian scene, probably a battle and over the past couple of days I have been considering a classic Thor or Beowulf as the protagonist.

Thor and Beowulf together, battling the Midgard Serpent!

That Simonson-layout/Buscema-finished splash with Thor flying into the open gape of the Midgard Serpent is a stunner!

A great way to end a great run.