He's all "aaah I'm f*in crazy over nothing"
"AAH must stop the voices in my head"
"I'm disfigured and sh**"
Seriously, why is it so stupid?
There's no fear since there's no suspense. Grendel was cartoonishly evil.
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I loved Grendel!
He was bizarre and hideously pitiable...definitely a Neil Gaiman contribution to the script.
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.
I feel SORRY for Grendel! Beowulf was so mean against him! All he wanted was some PEACE!! Yet Beowulf KILLS him!
For *beep* sake... please read the story of Beowulf & Grendel before you comment on Grendel. Why must people always comment on something they know nothing about... would be like complaining that the Hobbits were kind of small.
shareHe's yanking your chain pal....
"When all are one and one is all, to be a rock and not to troll....."
ya know, those hobbits were kind of small....just saying.
shareWell Beowulf and Grendel was written centuries after Beowulf was...said? created? Whatever, so the guy who wrote that had as much write to decipher the story as anyone here does.
I think the *beep* up and disfigured grendel was emant to be contrasted with the full on bad ass dragon transformer that was Beowulf's son to show the difference in their levels of bad assery.
--My signature can beat up your signature--
I HATE the way they made Grendel!
He was too pitiful, you actually feel sorry for him.
Nothing like I imagined.
That Grendel was awful. Slimy, noisy disgrace. And why did the fire go nuts when he was near? Only gaiman worshippers liked this piece of crap grendel.
Take him to the little room...for the questioning.
I have read nothing by Gaiman and yet I find Grendel the most interesting and appealing part of the film. I do think he needs to die though, just for being an abomination. I have to wonder why Grendel's mother can produce a beautiful creature like the Dragon on one occasion, but the coupling with Hrothgar creates such a misshapen and hideous mess. I mean, Beowulf is more conventionally-attractive than Hrothgar, sure, but not by such a staggering margin.
shareExactly! Thank you clownluv15! We shouldn't have been made to feel sorry for it.
Grendel was NOT a beast to be pitied. It's mentioned numerous times that he supposedly descended directly from Cain (the Biblical source of man's evil against man) and he is, no less, a horrific and monstrous beast. He has no conscious and does not, repeat DOES NOT SPEAK!!! Zemeckis, for some unbeknownst reason, wanted to say "ZOMG PEOPLE ARE THE REAL MONSTERS ROFL!!! AREN'T I ARTISTIC AND STUFF?!"
If you read Beowulf, Grendel isn't even that big of a part either- definitely not 45 minutes of odd old-English gibberish. But I digress. This Grendel was completely misinterpreted and completely out of tone for the rest of the movie. We feel that Beowulf is beating up on the Rocky Dennis kid from "Mask," and therefore have no real attachment to the character from then on.
To summarize, Grendel was a bloodthirsty monster with no conscious and if you take this movie as the only interpretation of this poem, then I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call you both 'misinformed' and 'lazy'. Read a book.
You know, the movie stands on its own and does not need to be at all faithful to the poem. Variations are to be embraced, otherwise we learn nothing new.
sharei just watched the extras on the dvd and they were saying that it was Glover's idea to make the character a sort of tortured and frail mamma's boy. The pain and the screams, it was all Glover. their initial idea was to make him just a psycho. But Glover had started to discuss more w/ Zemeckis and was allowed to take on the role and do a real good job. The writers were ecstatic to have him play Grendel.
Don't forget that the father laid w/ a demon. The outcome was worse than anyone could ever imagine.
i liked the idea of Grendel being a tormented soul. i also took the fact that Grendel was the inner side of what the King was and the Dragon turned out to personify what Beowulf actually was.
but you can go right ahead and simplify it w/ ur lil' comments.
Yeah, but Hrothgar didn't actually lay with the demon. That's something they made up to put in the film. They may have put that dual reflection in there to try and be symbolic, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's also not the story of Beowulf. Grendel was a monster as was his mother. The dragon was just a dragon. The whole plotline of Beowulf 'I-totally-killed-Grendel's-momma-except-not-really-and-had-a-son-with-her-who-oh-noes-turned-out-to-be-a-dragon-shapeshifter-I-am-Beowulf-lawlz' was unnecessary and doesn't reflect who Beowulf is at all. Beowulf was NOT a flawed hero, because this story was told to make the Geats, who were invading the Danish lands at the time, look like gods so they would stop burning down houses. They most certainly would not have suggested Beowulf sleeping with a monster. That would be insulting. It just doesn't make sense overall. If they wanted to make Grendel and the Dragon a reflection, than call the movie something else because it sure as hell isn't Beowulf.
shareaye....and in the extras the writers clearly said that it wasnt exact. they reinvisioned it.
they were explaining how some of the first people ever to translate texts were the monks and clearly they had to have had different translations or have had made certain imbellishments. so they thought, why not them? this is gaiman and whats his name's work. clearly its based on the story, but not exact, as just all movies translated from text are.
clearly tho you know ur Beowulf. kudos.
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That's weird because, in Gainman's short story novel, they've got a bit of the novel "American Gods" at the end and the main character Shadow is made to fight Grendel for the entertainment of the rich mortals. Grendel is a pitiful creature, way too sensitive to noise and routinely killed and resurrected for the enjoyment of the upper class. Earlier in the story, Grendel confronts Shadow, telling him that he and his mother are /not/ monsters. Shadow ends up saving Grendel and bringing him to his mother.
It just makes sense that Neil Gaiman would write Grendel for Beowulf like he did in a previous novel.
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I ain't your friend, palooka.
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Yeah, he reminded me of the cranky neighbor in the apartment next door who pounds on your door for playing your stereo too loud.
shareExcept very rarely did the cranky neighbor come over, barge in and systematically kill, dismember, and consume the partygoers.
Jesus Lol'd.
How else do you get vikings to shut the fruck up?!?
Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defense.
I liked the revision of Grendel, I thought he was interesting and I like that Grendel more than the one in the original story. There was also alot more involvement with him and his mother which made more room for action, making it a glorified story like it originally was. The story was all wrong, but I liked it anyway.
shareI'm not sure if they even portrayed Grendel right. I had to read the spin-off novel "Grendel" and he is obviously described as a giant bear, wolf, cat hybrid beast, and not some giant deformed monster.
"Our wills are like the Phoenix: Our souls can end but are never forfeited."
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