Not enough of what people really want!!!!

Rating: 7/10 (16 February 2005)

First and foremost, Alexander was a soldier. Indeed one of the best that history will ever know. Oliver Stone seems to have forgotten that.
What was it that made "Gladiator", the first of these historical resurrection movies such a success?? The BATTLES!!!!! It starts with the battle in Germania and then, every 15 minutes or so after that, Maximus is in the arena chopping off heads. It kept everything moving along nicely.
It took 45 minutes of absolute boredom in Alexander to get to the first battle & that was Gaugamela!!! Straight to the main course, no appetisers in the siege of Tyre or the battles at Issus or Granicus, each battle which was both important and different from the rest in all aspects (besides the outcome, Alexander always won). Rather than the tedium of showing Philip II as a carousing alcoholic (well played by Val Kilmer though), it was Philip who trained the Macedonian army to be what it was, that would have made much better cinema. Darius' part was reduced to a mere cameo, yet he was the main antagonist (on the surface at any rate) for Alexander!!!! There was too many attempts at showing some sort of "divine destiny" of Alexander and not enough showing what Alexander was remembered as "The Great" for, for being the truly great battlefield general he was.
I still can't believe I walked out of the cinema thinking "This was about as good as Troy, and that's not saying much." I can only hope that if Steven Pressfield's excellent "Gates Of Fire" is to be turned into a movie as has been mooted many times, that the producers learn the lessons from Alexander (& Troy) and concentrate on what really matters in history, the battles, how they were fought and who won.