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Denmark, circa 500 AD: As her village is terrorized by the homicidal
demon Grendel (Josh Kern), fearless Princess Freawaru (Morgan Shaley
Renew) and her sidekick and chronicler Shaper (Cleveland Langdale) set out
to find a hero to defeat Grendel - and they stumble upon Beowulf (Jennifer
Hill) and her entourage, and she slaughters an imp right in front of them.
Suitably impressed, and also drawn to her as a woman, Freawaru invites
Beowulf back to her village, and Beowulf gladly accepts the challenge. And
only back in the village and threatened by Grendel does Beowulf turn out
to not quite be the gung-ho heroine she has made herself out to be, as her
strengths relie more in a mix of boasts and bribery, but nevertheless she
can broker a peace between Grendel and the village, maybe even lasting
friendship - well, if it wasn't for an ill-advised villager (Aaron
Blomberg) taking advantage of Grendel letting his guard down, which in the
process might create a bigger threat than Grendel has ever been at his
worst ...
If you're looking for pure spectacle with a cornucopia of CGI
effects here, you will be disappointed, as this is a rather low-key affair
based much more on solid storytelling than mere action - and that's really
one of the strengths of the film as it gives its story and its characters
enough air to breathe, moves at an intentionally relaxed pace to properly
develop things and put an emphasis on dialogue. That's not to say that the
film's a bore at all, as it shows wit in both dialogue and storytelling -
and that's not even counting Beowulf's elegant gender swap -, and is
strong on atmosphere - and is just nice, if low budget, fantasy cinema.
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