has potential, but doesn't meet it

Rating: 10/10 (29 November 2004)

Alexander has a utterly fantastic final screenplay. It was a shame to see that fantasticness smashed to pieces by horrible acting on the parts of Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, and Anthony Hopkins. Colin sounded the part, but was as hollow as a log; Angelina was her usual self-- enough said; and Anthony (narrating as Ptolemy) spoke in a dull, textbook-like monotone throughout. It gets worse. The music was so bad that I was ready to chew off my ears (if that was in any way possible). There are certain scenes where the music just doesn't fit at all, and it makes the actors look even worse. It would have made A WORLD of difference had the score been better.
It's not of Oliver Stone's best directing either. It's hard to say, but it just doesn't seem like he directed Alexander in the same way he did his other films. The first battle scene is blurry and confusing and it's hard to establish what is going on, not to mention the fact that the script just skipped the entirety of Alexander's rise.
I was taken aback by the fact that most of the factual information in the movie was almost exactly what scholars today believe to be true of Alexander's life. Although, at Alexander's death, they portray Alexander as knowing that he was probably poisoned, though that is not a known fact. He also doesn't have 12 days of a high fever, but instead immediately collapses after drinking a particularly large goblet of wine, and seemingly dies the next day.
I would give this movie a 6 out of 10, and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys history, or has an interest in learning more of Alexander the Great.