<P> Scholars and authors have also commented on these changes . Southern Methodist University's Director of Medieval Studies Bonnie Wheeler is "convinced that the new Robert Zemeckis movie treatment sacrifices the power of the original for a plot line that propels Beowulf into seduction by Angelina Jolie--the mother of the monster he has just slain . What man doesn't get involved with Angelina Jolie?' Wheeler asks .' It's a great cop - out on a great poem .' ...' For me, the sad thing is the movie returns to...a view of the horror of woman, the monstrous female who will kill off the male,' Wheeler says .' It seems to me you could do so much better now . And the story of Beowulf is so much more powerful ."' Other commentators pointed to the theories elucidated in John Grigsby's work Beowulf and Grendel, where Grendel's mother was linked with the ancient Germanic fertility goddess Nerthus . </P> <P> This is not the first time that the theme of a relationship between Beowulf and Grendel's mother was explored . In Gaiman's 1998 collection of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors, the poem Bay Wolf is a retelling of Beowulf in a modern - day setting . In this story, Beowulf as the narrator is ambiguous about what happened between Grendel's mother and himself . </P> <P> In addition, philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma argues that "Zemeckis's more tender - minded film version suggests that the people who cast out Grendel are the real monsters . The monster, according to this charity paradigm, is just misunderstood rather than evil (similar to the version presented in John Gardner's novel Grendel). The blame for Grendel's violence is shifted to the humans, who sinned against him earlier and brought the vengeance upon themselves . The only real monsters, in this tradition, are pride and prejudice . In the film, Grendel is even visually altered after his injury to look like an innocent, albeit scaly, little child . In the original Beowulf, the monsters are outcasts because they're bad (just as Cain, their progenitor, was outcast because he killed his brother), but in the film Beowulf the monsters are bad because they're outcasts (...) Contrary to the original Beowulf, the new film wants us to understand and humanize our monsters ." </P> <P> At Comic - Con International in July 2006, Gaiman said Beowulf would be released on November 22, 2007 . The following October, Beowulf was announced to be projected in 3 - D in over 1,000 theaters for its release date in November 2007 . The studios planned to use 3 - D projection technology that had been used by Monster House (another film that Zemeckis was involved on, but credited as executive producer), Chicken Little, and 3 - D re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but on a larger scale than previous films . Beowulf would additionally be released in 35mm alongside the 3 - D projections . </P>

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