Not as Bad as Critics Have Reviewed the Film to Be.

Rating: 7/10 (30 September 2005)

I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining Alexander is and did not agree that this film deserved the poor reviews I've read so far. I attribute this to some clever film editing in certain parts of the film, resulting in an evenly paced rendition considering Alexander kept going and conquering everything east of home. There have been two other historical epics that focused on ancient Rome and Greece that were released during the past five years and thought Alexander made TROY look and sound just plain dumb, Alexander having overall more intelligent and involving dialog. Also I felt Alexander was more rich, lush and honest in it's screenplay and art direction, and was impressed by the costume design. I must applaud Oliver Stone for not hiding the truth about Alexander's personal life. Like it or not, that is the way a lot of soldiers related to one another back then. Being honest in depicting Alexander's personal relationships allowed for more freedom in character development; had Stone ignored history, the film would have had a lot of the stilted feel of TROY. I feel that a lot of the bad reviews were not honest; the reviewers perhaps too afraid to say they didn't appreciate the portrayal of unrestrained intimacy between Alexander and his friends, and for the rest of the Army. So they deliberately searched deeply for flaws.
Any film which picks me up and makes me forget I'm sitting in a chair in a theater is a pretty darn good film, and my involvement with Alexander was like a magic carpet ride in places; Stone hypnotizes in some scenes very well and in just the right places. Colin Farrell was just right for the role of Alexander; Angelina Jolie would have been given more credit had this been a premier role/film for her; instead she is so distinctive being herself that it is distracting - almost to the point of making me feel there was a commercial coming up soon. Further, the most annoying thing I found about the film was that Alexander and everyone around him all had heavy Irish, Scottish and English accents. Does anyone remember how out of place Ralph Richardson's accent was in DR. ZHIVAGO?
I enjoyed this film overall, and plan to view it 3 or 4 more times. My thanks to Stone and everyone involved for historically accurate storytelling!