Alexander fails miserably

Rating: 2/10 (1 November 2005)

Alexander is a waste of money, both mine and the people who financed the film. While watchable and certainly not the work of an amateur, it lacks direction in the plot, and merely skims over the surface of the life of Alexander. It lacks the scope and vision of a great film about one of history's notable figures.
The battle sequences are okay, a bit messy in direction. And for one of the great conquerors of the world, there is very little time given to fighting. The problem is that it tries to walk the line between epic and character driven, and succeeds as neither. Not enough fighting, and then not enough scope in the character scenes. There's plenty of dialogue, but it doesn't enhance the plot of the film. A reasonable amount is given to Alexander's character and whatnot, but it fails to develop into an interesting story, and so is simply an expensive, indulgent and ultimately shallow look at his life. There is no real attention given to the size of the empire (although it is mentioned, it fails to appear as anything more than a throwaway comment); the dissension in the ranks is only shown in some hollow-feeling false dramatic scenes. What we are left with as the film progresses is a disconnected series of scenes that fail to drive the story or allow the audience to actually engage with the characters and environment.
The reason why it didn't do well at the box office and with me, is that its just not any good. Well shot, average acting, shallow story, steeped in gayness. 2 out of 10