marramgrass

Beowulf.

I was looking forward to that film for ages.

It generally looks rather good. The proof is in a few of the faces (Beowulf, Hrothgar, Wiglaf) which are especially impressive, verging on photo-real. Others (Wealthow, Ursula) weren’t as convincing, and Grendel’s mum (Angelina Jolie) was good at a distance, but not so much up-close. I’m talking about her face, okay? There are a few Shrek-type moments, but I’ve a feeling they were ‘extras’ who were fully computer-generated rather than based on motion-captured actors. I can’t confirm that’s so, but it’s what it looked like to me.

I wish there was anywhere in NI where I could see the 3D version. But there’s not.

Beneath the surface, the writers (Gaiman and Avary) made some very interesting changes to the story. If you read over the Wikipedia page, you’ll find some debate and hand-wringing over this. In the source poem, Beowulf is a straight-and-dull action-hero type, but in this film he’s flawed and prideful, and it’s that pride that is his downfall, forming the thread that focusses and unites the three major sections of the plot.

Maybe I’m a bit of a philistine, but for me that makes for a much more interesting story. Tales of redemption are increasingly common in cinema, it seems, and this is a pretty good one. The way Grendel was played for sympathy (honestly, I think I wanted him to win) only strengthened this side of things.

So why am I disappointed?

Partly, I guess, because the film just didn’t live up to my anticipation. And partly because, despite all the great things about it, I felt at a distance from the action and the characters the whole way through. Maybe that’s a consequence of the motion-capture approach, I don’t know. I do have the feeling that the style was a strength – Ray Winstone’s voice was just right, but I don’t know if he’d have been as convincing ‘live’.

It was pretty good, but I can’t help wondering if it could have been so much more.

The weather today has been simply shocking — there’s lots of flooding going on round here.

Makes you glad to be inside in the warm. I think we’ll be lighting the fire tonight when some family come round.

My plans are well under way. We went to see Beowulf last weekend, and I caught The Golden Compass yesterday. They were, to different degrees, disappointing. I’ll come back to them when I’m not supposed to be writing something I actually get paid for…

I have discovered a new webcomic. It’s called Questionable Content, and it’s rather good fun. It’s also currently at edition 1026 — so plenty of scope for distraction there. Which just now may not be such a good thing.

By the way, when looking for it you really want to get the web address exactly right, or you might turn up some decidedly questionable content. Be ye warned :-o

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. For Western churches that follow the liturgical calendar, this is the start of the new church year.

I have mostly spent time in places where we haven’t really paid attention to that aspect of the day, but a couple of years ago I spent a short placement with a Church of Scotland congregation with a more liturgical approach to their worship than I was used to, and I was introduced to the rhythm of the year running under and through the rise and fall of day-to-day life.

The short season of Advent is a time of anticipation: of darkness waiting for light to break in (both physically and metaphorically), of the world waiting for the birth of Christ, of the world waiting for his return. There’s a tension around at this time of year, celebrating what has happened while waiting for what’s still to come.

This year I’ve discovered that it’s a reminder that we’re here, now. Living in the in-between time of the “now, but not yet”, I guess Christians have often been guilty of ignoring what’s going on around them — injustice, poverty, hunger… I know I have/am. But we are here, now, and there’s so much to see and remember and do.

Now in December, the pace has picked up over at The Mockingbird’s Leap as we’re practicing the attention that comes with being present in the world, the here and now. I’ve even been there already this afternoon.

It’s time to enjoy the tension-approaching-paradox of commemoration flavoured with anticipation, of the eye on forever that still takes in today, and to remember to look forward, and around, as well as back.