Not Good Enough

Rating: 4/10 (11 August 2014)

The movie itself is a self-fulfilling prophecy as characters warn about sacrificing traditional austerity for wealth and pomp: Perhaps this happened to the filmmakers who had upwards of a hundred million dollars to work with. So maybe they felt they had to make it over-the-top instead of relying on a decent solid script.
There are good things about this movie, but it is outweighed by negatives. The good is that there are many historically accurate facts: Aristotle was Alexander's tutor. Olympias raised Alexander to think he's a son of Zeus. Although the Greeks won by masterly employment of cavalry, the Persians also used cavalry. Cleitus and Parmenion were indeed killed.
But the focus is somehow off. There is too much talking, too much reiteration, not enough action (there was a wealth of battles to choose from). That would be fine if the talking taught us more about history, but it usually happened in a totally unrealistic way. For instance, the scene where Philip is drunk and attacks Alexander. It was too verbose, and why was Olympias watching from afar? Why not keep it simple and true to the account? Why not have Alexander say simply and proudly, "What am I then, a bastard?" Then have Philip rush at Alexander immediately and trip--that would be spontaneous, interesting.
For that matter, why rename Attalus' daughter from Cleopatra to Euterpe? Is it because Oliver Stone felt audiences would confuse her with the queen of Egypt? Why use the word 'guerilla' in a BC film unless the film was consistently anachronistic (like Shakespeare)?
The worst part of the movie was Alexander himself. It is true that Alexander was sensitive, intelligent, brave, and disturbed. They tried to show his sensitive side too much, and as the movie went on he got more and more whiny, and this is where I turned the movie off. I think it would have been much more compelling to portray him as a narcissist who snaps without warning.
Take the scene where he kills Cleitus: Alexander was blubbering a lot, and you could tell exactly what was going to happen. It would be far more compelling if Cleitus talked to him like that thinking that Alexander wouldn't get mad. Then suddenly Alexander snaps and throws the spear at him. Only then Alexander bursts out crying realizing what he's done.
Also, going back and forth in time was really irritating and destroyed a lot of suspense that could've built up. Sorry for such a longwinded review on my part, but it is a really interesting story that needs to be done right. This and the film "W" confirm my impression that Oliver Stone is overrated.
The best thing about this movie is that it made me want to cross-check it with the real historical facts.