Alexander conquers both Troy and Arthur

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2005)

THE LAST SAMURAI was the first of the sword-and-saddle genre and was a indisputable instant classic. Followed by three huge challengers featuring Troy, King Arthur and Alexander (and now Kingdom Of Heaven) -Alexander leaps from director Oliver Stone's brilliant directing and takes Colin Farrell to a new stage of acting.
Colin Farrell is very convincing and good in his lead character, and together with Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer the cast works very well. And heading as a deadly arrow Alexander strikes very vital at first sight, and the fine surprise of it is that it keeps itself like that. Very deadly in it's straight ahead drama the movie is far more convincing, dramatic, catching and deadly than both TROY and KING ARTHUR. The action scenes of Troy were fantastic and the photo of Arthur was beautiful, but Alexander pitches all the small buttons very nice in it's ambitious way. Not reaching for unknown heights with millions of people fighting each other over and over, and not seeming to big for itself's good. It captures a bizarre mood in a Oliver Stone way and makes friends with the audience being bona fide Stone with delicious directing, music and cinematography. Colin Farrell being a blond haired legend that has feelings for both men and women, gets caught between the pure Oliver Stone obsessions and the haunting for greatness, but it works fine! Angelina Jolie may not do her best performance (has she ever done one?) but she makes the movie be more interesting under the huge gaps when Alexander's character can't fill the emptiness, and so with Alexander's father played by a aging Kilmer.
Where TROY had too many battles Alexander takes things easy and gets more character development in between, and where KING ARTHUR were uninteresting and too cheesy, Alexander is realistic and bizarre. Though it hasn't got anything against Cruise's Asian trip, Alexander is a very much good film and Stone has succeeded by all means. Though it may not have the pure beautiness or great aspects, all the small parts are here - as a eagle flies we get a close-up before it surfs threw the air and we get the true perspective of the battle that's about to rage. And the brilliant scene seeing Alexander facing an elephant, it's bona fide Oliver Stone.