Beowulf/YMMV

Beowulf

Poem

• Complete Monster: Out of the three main villains in the poem, Grendel certainly is this. Unlike his mother who was at least shown to be angered by her sons' death or the dragon who was simply angered due to having his rest disturbed, Grendel is a sadistic beast who constantly breaks into Hrothgar's mead hall and happily slaughters the men inside. He's also condemned multiple times by the narrator throughout the poem, and it's mentioned that even God himself is disgusted by Grendel and condemns him to hell.
• Draco in Leather Pants: A lot of adaptations, such as John Gardner's Grendel, the 2005 film Beowulf and Grendel, and the 2007 film, tend to portray Grendel sympathetically, despite the fact that in the poem, out of the three monsters, he's the one the narrator condemns the harshest and the most often.
• First Installment Wins: The first portion of the story is the most familiar to the layman, including such well-known elements as Beowulf's having the strength of thirty men and ripping Grendel's arm off.
• Ho Yay: In Seamus Heaney's translation, Hrothgar's farewell to Beowulf seems extremely... intimate.
• Values Dissonance: To the Anglo-Saxons, Beowulf would be a perfect hero, representing all that the Anglo-Saxons stand for. To modern readers, Beowulf would probably come off as a selfish, arrogant person who perpetually seeks fame.
  • Although the text repeatedly conveys that Beowulf's defeat of Grendel was a noble act, the description of the scene is so bone-crunchingly brutal that it makes Beowulf look downright sadistic. You almost feel sorry for Grendel, despite him already having been established as a Complete Monster.
• The Woobie: Poor, poor Hrothgar. You just want to build the next wonder of the world, and for years to come a monster is feasting on your men, and you know you can't do anything about it. When you finally get rid of the monster, another one comes and kills one of your best warriors. When that one is taken care of, you're so grateful towards the hero that did it that you hope to meet him again, but know that you won't because you're dying, and after you're dead, your prized hall is destroyed and your nephew, who you hope to watch over your sons, ends up killing them. Hrothgar's life sucks.

2007 film

• Alas, Poor Villain: Grendel.
• Completely Missing the Point: The adaptation as a whole is one long case of either research failure or just not caring when adapting the poem (based on comments made by the writers, who admitted not liking the poem in the first place, it's likely the latter as much as anything). Turning Beowulf into a smug and self-promoting Jerkass fails on a number of points:
  • In the culture which wrote the poem, Heroes do not lie about their exploits. If Beowulf said he did something, that means he did it exactly as he said he did. Germanic people drew a clear distinction between hollow boasting and being a legitimate badass. If Beowulf didn't do the things he said he did, in the way he said he did them, he'd have been called on it and likely laughed out of Heorot. It's not to say the WRITERS of the POEM didn't exaggerate his accomplishments (compare the folklore surrounding heroic figures of the past in modern society such as George Washington) but Beowulf himself did not. His boasting is expected to be taken by the audience explicitly at face value.
  • The film turns Beowulf's accounts of his actions into hubris and pride, particularly in the way he exaggerates or outright lies about his exploits. Unfortunately, while modern audiences may expect more humility from their heroes, this was not the case in the Germanic and Norse sagas. Beowulf's boasting of his accomplishments is basically giving his resume about why he's the right one to fight Grendel. It's a job
  • And among other things, the plot is also important to show the importance of Beowulf to his people, the Geats. At the end of the poem when Beowulf dies, Wíglaf laments that with Beowulf gone there is no one else who can lead and protect them from the Swedes, who subsequently conquered and destroyed the Geatish people as an independent kingdom. The original poem could be compared to the modern historical epic: As much intended for entertainment as it is to retell a part of that culture's history. As stated above, it's not unlike the folklore surrounding figures such as Washington or Lincoln today.
• Evil Is Sexy: Grendel's Mother. Profoundly averted by Grendel himself, though.
• Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Stories of heroism are basically lies told in order to cover up questionable or outright shitty behavior, and by the time you realize you shouldn't have told the story in the first place, you'll be too old and filled with regret for it to matter. This isn't entirely untrue - see Plato's Republic for more on the dangers of "true" heroic stories - but it may be a Broken Aesop as well, considering the film ends with Beowulf tearing the heart out of a dragon with his bare hands.
• Narm Charm: In a movie where the protagonist is the largest of Large Hams, this isn't surprising. Other characters get in on the action, too.
• Older Than They Think: This film is often accused of plagiarizing 300, with the line "I! AM! BEOWULF!" being a bit too similar to "THIS! IS! SPARTA!" and the line "TONIGHT! WILL BE DIFFERENT!" being rather akin to "TONIGHT! WE DINE! IN HELL!" What these people don't realize is that there's a thing called Animation Lead Time. Filming of Beowulf was done long before filming of 300 began.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks
• Uncanny Valley: A bit disturbing at first, but gets better as the film goes on. Clearly, the crew learned a few things from The Polar Express. For the most part, the expressions and characters themselves don't invoke this a whole lot. But there is a slightly creepy air whenever they're prominently handling objects or interacting with them, due to the objects not seeming to have any weight and simply "float" in the characters' hands.
• What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Director Robert Zemeckis had originally intended to release an NC-17 version for IMAX theatres and a PG-13 version for regular theatres but was forced by Paramount to deliver an R rating. The final version was rated PG-13, which surprised many people on the production (including Angelina Jolie, who did not see the film as family-friendly and refused to let her children see it).
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Grendel comes over as this. He just has hypersensitive hearing and the feasts at the great hall therefore cause him pain. When he starts his rampages, he comes over as a crying child throwing a (very bloody) tantrum.