So... very... frustrating

Rating: 5/10 (17 August 2005)

I've picked through a lot of the comments. Before I say what bothered me about the film, let me say what DIDN'T bother me.
Homosexuality as a subject does not bother me in the least. English and Irish accents don't bother me. Historical inaccuracy doesn't bother me.
These have been a few of the things that other people who loved the movie thought might turn people off of this film.
The film was visually pretty good. Minus the 'shaky-cam' that seemingly everyone insists on doing these days (which has been overdone to death, and almost never gives a good result), the cinematography was pretty good. Some moments were really gorgeous. Sets were good. Attention to detail in costuming was good. The score did not stand out (meaning I didn't feel artificially manipulated like some other composers), which means it was doing its job well. So those things weren't the problem.
The standout moment of BAD cinematography was the near-death moment for Alexander, after falling from his horse. Here's a good example of how NOT to use color in a scene. If you want to see how to do it WELL, see 'Hero'.
The acting ranged, but I have never seen Anthony Hopkins do anything other than stellar acting, so it says something that in the opening scene, the movie was already losing me. That can ONLY be writing or directing, and in this case, almost certainly writing.
It's not a matter of lack of patience. I sat through 'The Remains of the Day', an exceptionally slow movie, that was exceptionally well done.
The actors do frequently give good performances. Even Colin Ferril and Angelina Jolie are pretty good, and I don't consider either of them stellar actors. But the problem really comes not from HOW they say their lines, but the dialog itself. It's bad, and I can't quite put my finger on why.
I think perhaps Stone tries to accomplish more in this film than his skill will allow. It overshoots drama into melodrama. It seems to have a bunch of half-baked concepts that are never clearly explored.
By the movie's end (what felt like forty nine days after we started watching the film), I was literally shaking my fists in anger and clenching my jaw, so utterly frustrated at a film that was almost great, and failed in a huge towering miserable heap.
For those of you who rated this movie 1, however, I would like to point out the classic, 'Legion of the Dead'; a movie so bad I wanted it erased from my brain, even if that required surgery. If you think 'Alexander' is a 1, you need to readjust your scale... unless of course you're taking the movie's budget into account.