Ben Hur meets Apocalypse Now You do the math

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2004)

I saw a Free Preview last night, and it was really disappointing. I've heard people saying its good because its a different kind of Epic. One that doesn't focus on battles. But I found the battles to be one of the major problems. Each sequence was too long and shot like a Vietnam war movie. They almost seemed like they were from a different movie. The homosexual love story angle was poorly handled. Stone seemed to dance around it and not face it head on. There almost seemed to be a moral conclusion to it to appease the moral majority.
I also had a problem with the political message of the movie. Stone seemed to dance around this subject as well. On one hand Alexander's great quest was to free the people of the east from tyrannical rule. While the narrator dismisses his this dream at the end as folly, then goes about revising his own assertion.
For Stone, who usually deals with issues head on, this was a bit of disappointment. He seemed to follow Alexander's battle strategy from the first battle. Distract the opposition with a head on blitz while the sneaking up on the target from the flank. Stone distracts the viewer with visual tricks and interesting editing choices (like the flash back in the middle of the chronological movie). While trying to out flank the issues. Unfortunately this tecnique works just as well for stone as it did for Alexander. Caught his foe (the point) of guard, just missed it and let it get away, while he regrouped to strengthen the main distracting force.