who can do better?

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2016)

I remember when this came out, most people (and particularly in Greece) were annoyed, including myself, from this seemingly messed non-linear-story movie, with no sufficient respect to the iconic historical person and to the ideas he represents. Stone started being called Stoned.
One day after watching Jared Leto in the Suicide Squad, I was compelled to see Alexander once more where he plays Hephaistion, the historically supposed love of protagonist's life. And this was where all the problem of this movie began. Excellent cinematography, dialogues, writing, editing, music, had less impact than the love story of the main character. Diminishing it to a peephole-movie rather than the biography of 4 in 1 king (King of Macedon, Persia, Asia, Egyptian Pharaoh) everybody expected to see. Indeed this was a serious mistake, both historically probably inaccurate and vexing for the viewer. Alexander had according to historians 3 wives and more lovers (women) than his supposedly unfaithful father, plus a personal harem. He might indeed have had some unconfirmed bysexual traits, however this is not the reason he is remembered today by the whole world. His battle record, military genius and inspiring spirit were depicted as collateral damage to his ineffable character.
Today with sufficient distance from the first shock, I was able to appreciate the rest of the movie. I was amazed by the cinematography, the artistic touch in scenes of action, drama or romance and the great historical accuracy of production design, battles depiction and costumes.
Even if Alexander was not far from this depiction, we live in a world a lot different than that time. What was ethical then would not necessarily be today and vice-versa. But you cannot sell a lot of pasta in Italy if you label them "noodles".
All in all, for 155M$ you get a more real and far better movie than the 175M$ CGIed Suicide Squad. (And I am a hardcore DC fan). The kind of movie that makes you want to buy a projector for home. Just skip a few scenes the first time