Gods-awful picture!

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2005)

Never before would I have dreamed of submitting a critique of anyone's work, especially here. But after my experience last night I couldn't rest until I got it off my chest! I had to turn this bactrian banality off once Farrel/Alexander got to India and before I dropped off in a catatonic stupor from watching the title actor sleep walk through his lines or stare past the camera like an imbecile. When the script did give him something to bite into he simply raised his voice and made spittle fly off his lips: this is acting?? How did such a great adventure turn into such melodramatic mush? The photography and sets had great potential but ended up looking like snapshots from my Uncle's last Wyoming trip. The flahsbacks and story structure must have had the Titans spinning in their graves under Mt Olympus for the complete lack of story telling ability.
Its obvious that either Stone lost complete control of this picture early on or he simply is an overindulgent hack who lucked out with a couple of good production teams early in his career. I could see Gilliam turning out this kind of crap if he was over medicated with anti-depressants. Consider this: if Peter Jackson (and I think he's just a lucky, big budget craftsman rather than a creative filmmaker) had made Alexander, wouldn't it have been a hell of a lot richer, more textured, much more well made and plain old more watchable?? And believe me, that's not really a homage to Jackson! Oliver Stone blew it on Alexander, big time!