SALON on LOTR and Beowulf films
 

Salon has a very interesting essay from editor Gary Kamiya giving his reaction to the new BEOWULF film and his comparison to the Jackson LOTR film. It goes for several pages and is a decent read but its essence can be described from this wonderful paragraph

Quote:

In this regard, Peter Jackson's magnificent film version of "The Lord of the Rings" may mislead filmmakers into thinking that all they have to do to tell a mythical tale is shoot the literal action and let the power of film fill in the poetic blanks. But it isn't that easy. Jackson's film succeeds not simply because it captures the look of Tolkien's world, but because it captures its heart.

The complete essay can be found here

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/11/20/beowulf/

Holy smokin' bologna! Few people can deny that Jackson did an amazing job making a movie based off of the novels, but many, many people can argue with the fact that he captured the heart of story.

Don't have time to read the article, but I highly disagree with the one paragraph you posted.

Oh dear, as if we needed another reason to dislike Beowulf: It's travesties are going to make PJ look positively glowing by comparison.

The horror! The horror!

One small saving grace, however, is that one hopes this means Angelina Jolie will likely not be wanted for Luthien. Now if only we could ensure that The Pitts isn't called upon for Beren.