Alexander movie wasn't great

Rating: 6/10 (7 August 2005)

I wish either Ridley Scott or Mel Gibsen had directed Alexander rather than Oliver Stone. The movie seemed out of kilter for me most the time with the endless flashbacks and skipping over of most of the history to spend too much time addressing the "gayness" of Alexander. The Homoerotica didn't need to be so blatant in my opinion. I liked the several battle scenes, although, the dust in the battle of Gaugamela took away from the view. I guess this was to hide the CGI deficiencies, but I'm sure some will comment that it could indeed have been that dusty. It would have been good to show the battles of Granicus and Issus or the battle at Tyre with it's causeways and towers that Alexander's army had to build. Even abbreviated to set the scene with the final battle at Gaugamela against Darius. Also, it would have been neat to see that there were Greeks fighting with Darius against this Macadonian. The battle of Hydaspes against the Indians with their elephants was pretty good. Overall, the photography was good, acting pretty good, plot line was not fluid....and we were not let down by Director Stone when he threw in the conspiracy theory surrounding Alexander's death at the end. (Shades of JFK!)