Pup’s Movie Corner

Today we will review the movie Beowulf.

Based on a just a poem (albeit quite long), Hollywood managed to make this into a full length movie. To make things more interesting, they made a good part of the movie fully CGI. While it was interesting watching part of the movie completely in CGI and almost like a game, I went to the theaters to watch a movie, not to watch the intro to a game.

The movie itself was fine. The plot was simple enough. Men can’t resist the hotness that is Angelina Jolie and they’re pretty much cursed forever. I’m not quite sure how they got a PG-13 rating on this. Not that I’m complaining, but there was a lot of nudity going on (don’t worry ladies, there is male nudity too). Even if it’s supposed to be digital nudity, it was still nudity.

So here’s my problem with the movie. It doesn’t have that much to do with the movie itself. I have more of a problem with the idea of Beowulf as a ‘hero’. For in my mind, he is no hero at all and that kinda ruins the movie for me.

Beowulf fought for personal glory. He fought for the sake for fighting. He fought so that his legend would grow, so that there would be stories told about him. Everything he did was about him wanting to be glorified and show off that he’s better than others.

I understand that this problem is strictly my own issue. Beowulf is just not my idea of a hero. Sounds silly but a hero is a hero because they didn’t want to be a hero in the first place. Heroes are people who are put in or fall into a difficult situation and they perform above and beyond themselves and what others would have done. Heroes only fight when necessary and fight for a purpose/goal greater than themselves. That is the definition of a hero and the complete opposite of Beowulf.

Given the choice, a hero would never have wanted to be a hero. That’s what makes them so great. They rise when they have to, when no one else would. They rise to protect. They fight when necessary, but only as a last resort.

Perhaps I’m being too critical about this. I think most people will enjoy Beowulf. It’s a fun movie to watch with a very interesting obvert use of CGI and good special effects. However, I regard my idea of a hero quite highly. Beowulf contradicts every idea I have for a hero and I believe I was too caught up on that to enjoy the movie.

Rating: 2 Paws (out of 5)