Beware of women... they are far more dangerous than men

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2010)

I base this upon the 168 minute version. Maybe that makes it the Director's Cut... I inquired the cover of the DVD(which came only with the film, subtitles and scene selection), and was granted no answer. Well, this has divided people. Whenever Stone decides to have at the ol' history books with correction fluid, he's got students failing classes and teachers pulling their hair out as if they've just decided that baldness would look good on them, and they haven't the patience to go and acquire a shaving apparatus. I'm of the opinion that you simply shouldn't go with, well, *anything* you're told in a piece of fiction as being truth before checking it with a reliable source(no, Wiki doesn't count), and I try to judge these based on how entertaining they are. With that said, for the handful of inaccuracies this has, it is quite authentic. The production values are rich, with great designs. We get some pretty attractive visuals. For an epic of this scope, and on such a grand scale, to be this bold is impressive. I understand that many have been angered by the homo/bi aspect... since there is evidence to suggest that being the case for the man this is a biography of, and, you know, the small fact that in ancient Greece, *it was seen as completely natural*, I remain baffled by that response. To those who claim that this is tarnishing Alexander... if something is going to give a bad name to anyone, isn't the instant jump to the conclusion that gay=negative a better candidate? And if it isn't, shouldn't it be? I wasn't surprised by Oliver having the guts, but Farrell(who delivers a rather strong performance) and Leto(who is also amazing... isn't he always?), I didn't know to expect the courage from. The relationship between them is convincing, which cannot be said of all the others. Kilmer does well for what he's given to work with. I like that the British accents represent upper class, and other English ones signal lower ones in this. With that said, a few of the dialects can be all over the place(is Jolie trying to sound German? I think she's the only one on the planet who knows what she was going for with that). The acting tends to be solid, including most of that of the kids. Casting is hit and miss, and talents are wasted by being given next to nothing to do, and the screen-time to match(also, Christopher Plummer ought not to wear a toga... he can not pull it off with any dignity intact). Dialog is fine, if a little of it screams "look, we did our research". This comes off as real, with no excessive CGI, and things tend to have impact. The battles are bloody, brutal and seen up close, you can tell this is the guy behind Platoon(you *feel* the deaths). No, you don't know exactly who's winning(it's not the level of Star Wars Episode III, though), because no one in the midst of that situation does, except for when it is obvious; instead, you sense the chaos of it. Think of the landing sequence from Saving Private Ryan. There is a bit of racism and a tad of sexuality and female nudity in this. I recommend this to those looking for an enjoyable retelling of his life... for an entirely credible one, look elsewhere, of course. 7/10