expensive yet hardly inspired

Rating: Null/10 (10 December 2004)

From the director of JFK and Natural Born Killers comes this long, discursive, and disappointing Greek saga of Alexander the Great, a fierce and honorable young Macedonian king who conquered most of the known world while only in his twenties. The ancient times are brought to life on a lavish scale, but the film is unfortunately done in by a script that's dreadfully overlong, and direction that's surprisingly unfocused. Farrell is good but never quite arresting as the imperious ruler, Jolie respectable but unremarkable as his scheming mother Olympia, though Kilmer does give a spirited performance as his drunken father Phillip. Hopkins is wasted as Ptolemy, and Dawson doesn't elicit much interest as Roxanne. An ambitious effort from director Stone, but the story takes forever to tell and never really livens up until the finale. Had the potential to be something special, but it's uneven and forgettable. **