"Gunnarsson is only partially up to the challenge posed by his illustrious source material." - Nick Schager

A retelling of (2/3rds of) Beowulf refocused on family and vengeance, in a partially modern vernacular. Butler's not much fun, but Polley, Skarsgård and Sigurðsson especially (his Grendel/Frankenstein's monster hybrid gleefully bowling for heads, or at one hilarious point echoing Monty Python's French soldier on the ramparts) do fine. The true star here is the beautifully sparse Icelandic landscape, nicely captured, composed and colored into mossy greens and lavender skies.

It's WAAAAAY too violent.

It turned out to be a bit better than expected; the movie is an interesting interpretation of the epic. This Grendel is a lot more than a taker of life; in fact the movie never quite makes it clear what he is. Oh, and the scenery is wonderful. Unfortunately despite the interesting bits, the dialogue is bad, quite horrid at times, and this thing alone nearly ruins everything else. I also found the Christian related bits distracting, poorly executed and lacking any real meaning.

Much like the 2007 animated Beowulf, this film decides that the original Beowulf story isn't good enough, and throws in a bunch of random backstory and characters that aren't present in the poem. Sarah Polley is conspicuous due to her Canadian accent, and her annoying character doesn't even exist in the real Beowulf poem. Gerard Butler does a fine job, though the blond patch in his hair makes no sense. It isn't bad... if you never read the book.

well looking but kinda flat

Very good interpretation of an old saga. Good female characters. Differs positively from the recently made animated version. Story consentrates a bit more on Grendel than Beowulf. Breathtaking sceneries. Even with it's faults worth to see.

eng

Some really fantastic cinematography for sure and I found the soundtrack to be very good. Gerard Butler was fantastic. Some felt like the story didn't deliver the complete character of Beowulf but with the title of Beowulf & Grendel I got exactly what I was expecting. The only real grip from me was that Sarah Polley's sole American accent felt really out of place in the film. Aside from that I really enjoyed it.

Not nearly as gritty as it should have been, dumb dialogue (the one lady without the accent was a terrible idea), average or even below average acting (oh god the troll was horrible), the monsters were quite cheesy and the music was distracting. On the other hand it has incredible scenery, and some pretty nice photography. This project could have been really memorable but it falls short. It's not that bad, but it doesn't do Beowulf (it's only half of the story) justice.

Not bad,could have been a great film if done on the scale of say Lord of the rings.

OK, but the sex scene between Beowulf and the (randomly and pointlessly added to the tale) witch character is hilariously awful. Fully clothed, awkward movements, unpleasant noises....just terrible stuff. Also, Gerard Butler makes zero attempt to disguise his Scottish accent.

Great scenery, some language and action dialogue issues but well worth the time taken to watch.

Gritty and poignant. Gerard Butler is an excellent Beowulf!!!! The cinematography is absolutely breathtaking.

Decent movie.

"...worth checking out."

"...ridiculous."

I liked it.