Beowulf

Well, hubby and I trotted off to see Beowulf last night. We even got some popcorn (£7.40 for 2 bags of popcorn - what's that in dollars for our North American cousins? $15?! It's an outrage I tell you!). Despite being a 5.30 showing on a week night the cinema was pretty busy. High proportion of young single guys of the slightly geek-ish persuasion. And the film is just a great laugh.

It is not deep or thoughtful and the plot is thin-ish and as expected, takes some liberties with the original, but it is absolutely fantastic to look at. If you want to see it, definitely go and see it in the cinema as it will be a complete waste of time watching it on a small screen. And if you are going to go to the cinema to see it, try to see it in 3D. All those arrows and swords and spears flying at you will be just pointless (hah! pointless!) if they don't make you sit back in your seat as they come at your nose. And you get spattered with blood and other fluids quite often, in a virtual way. But the fight and chase scenes are magnificent. Grendel is really well done - possibly the best realisation of the film - and you forget you are watching computer animation half the time. Ray Winstone is memorable in the title role (think dodgy East End car salesman: "Oi've come ta kill yer monstah!") leading to an outbreak of imitation last night and this morning in our house. "Oi've come ta put the bins aht!" This will run and run, I suspect.

One note of caution: the film is certified 12A here which means kids under 12 can see it if they are with an adult. There were some kids of about 11 or so in the cinema but I really reckon it's not for kids under 12 unless they are made of pretty stout stuff. The violence is pretty graphic and thanks to the 3D you are right in among it. And the humour is pretty earthy in places and you don't want to know what Angelina Jolie asks Beowulf to do. Or maybe you do, but not with your kids sitting beside you. My kids (a sensitive 9 year old and a more robust 7 year old) would have found it hard going in places, I think.

So there you have it. Thumbs up for 3D Beowulf (and fingers crossed that Angelina Jolie had to be significantly computer enhanced because if she really looks anything like that in real life, well, life just isn't fair). And tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo and provided I manage to crawl to the computer sometime on Friday, I will have posted every day of November.