Would have been good if it was a HBO special

Rating: 2/10 (13 December 2005)

I'm only giving this movie a 2 because i thought that the structure of the movie would be perfect for a HBO special that went strait to video/cable instead of theaters. This movie really wasn't that great, it's kind of hard to give it any credit at all.
The first problem withthis movie (and the most major) is that it had an all star cast that ended up doing a mediocre job at best. This might have been OK for any of their career's earlier but at this stage with there star power, they simply didn't deliver(which shows Hollywood once again, like batman forever, that an all star cast DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK)
Oliver stone also did a horrible job with the action sequences, too much concentration on emotional aspects instead of the raw battle energy of troy or lord of the rings(like the whole red vision idea with the elephant fight was pretty horrible). The fights seemed unstructured and way to complicated. It was hard to figure out what Alexander was doing in the first fight, then to skip in between from macedonia center to out was strange. It didn't really explain how Alexander defeated a army much larger than his(as in reference to military genius wise).
Another problem is the story was too long in order to get to any fighting (which by my count is only 2). Oliver was trying to look at Alexander the man, focusing only on his character. The problem with this is you can pretty much figure out what kind of man Alexander is: 1 He's gay, 2: has a dream, 3: takes over most of world, 4: had mother influence, 5: liked his father. That pretty much sums him up, although it got interesting with him go crazy, they took to long to get to that stage, and took too long to get out of that stage also.
Secondly, was the timing of the film. It didn't flow nicely, you would cut into him as a kid, then him grown, a tragedy hits and next thing you know your viewing him 9-10 years earlier before that happened. Too much jumping around isn't great for the audience, especially after a major event happens (which the audience is waiting for what's going to happen next)only to cut back into his earlier years then zoom forward(once again oliver trying to focus on Alexander's past and character, which already has enough depth).
Val kilmer surprisingly was the best character in the whole movie, nailing down the father/king type perfectly. Angelina Jolie on the other hand did a decent job but the scenes with her in it could have been cut down drastically while still getting the same effect, emotion and motive out of the conversations with Alexander. Jared leto just didn't fit well in this movie, something about his face and voice just didn't give him a great role in the movie. Rosario Dawson did a decent job, can't really complain about her because she didn't have much of a role to begin with. Collin Ferrell basically did a horrible job, (then again when does he do a good job?).
Oliver really tried to push Collin to be a power figure like Mel Gibson of brave heart but also a leader role such as Russell crowe from gladiator. Collin's voice sounded whiny, he didn't have much of a look of a someone great, he seemed to put to much emotion into lines. Let's face it, certain actors do great in historical events (such as Mel Gibson, Russell crowe, Eric bana, somewhat on brad Pitt and Orlando bloom ((although kingdom of heaven was the same deal of trying to push a actor who doesn't fit the power figure great, still that movie was 10 times better than this.)) Orlando bloom easily could have been a better Alexander than Collin Ferrell. Anthony Hopkins is the same deal as Rosario Dawson. Not much of a major role so no complaints.
Overall this movie seemed like something out of a HBO special, which could have done well if it was a HBO special. Unfortunately this movie had to much expectations to follow a great hit like troy. In the end, this movie just isn't that good, so don't waste your time (2 hrs and 47 Min's is another complaint, way too long) or your money.