Just An Average Epic

Rating: 5/10 (30 November 2004)

As I walked to my car after seeing this, I wondered why this movie failed to move me. After some reflection, I think it comes down to two major problems.
1) Except for Alexander, Olympia, and Philip the characters are not well defined. They simply do their thing for the others to react to and just don't stand out. For example, I found Troy did a much better job of presenting many well rounded characters.
2) If I am going to an epic, I don't want to spend three hours watching a mother-son fight out their relationship. The movie needs a strong external foe to Alexander to give me something better to connect with. If I were to make the movie, I would put much more emphasis on the Darius-Alexander fight and make Darius the antagonist of the movie. The other parts would have to fit around the fight.
Probably worth seeing but save your money and watch a matinée.