a positive review with some criticism thrown in for interest

Rating: 9/10 (14 May 2004)

I just came back from the movies- WOW! Troy was the type of movie where you sit in the cinema afterwards for half of the credits, just absorbing what happened! I loved it! I've been looking forward to it soooo much and wasn't disappointed at all.
To be honest, at first I wanted to see Troy because of Orlando Bloom. But his part is really over-hyped-up. He comes across as a kid who doesn't care about consequences, and has a fair share up brattyness thrown in for good measure. I suppose that could be called good acting- after all, that's what Paris was, I spose. But Orlando didn't even convince me that he was being driven by love- that the whole movie was an epic based on, and fought for, love. He was kinda stale with Helen(when you consider that his passion for her was Paris's only redeeming character trait) and he didn't register much emotion at all.
Helen may have had a part in this- she was a real casting disappointment. I hoped to see a woman who was so beautiful it would convince me that yes, she could provoke a war.
(In the original story, Helen is courted by all the princes of Greece, and they all sign a pact to say that if harm ever befalls her, they will go to her rescue. Then, when she is stolen? something like ten years later, they are all obliged to rescue her, although by then none of them really care about her any more, and most are happily married. )
So Helen was really pretty boring in the movie. Her character was wishy-washy, she couldn't ever decide on anything, and to top it off she was cast next to Hectors wife(don't know this actresses name either).
Hector's wife, I thought was brilliant. She had personality, showed compassion and convinced me of her position. She was the type of person I imagined as Helen.
I think Helen would have been better portrayed as either cold, hard and incredibly, impossibly beautiful, or as a strong, courageous and influential leader of women, who used beauty to her advantage.
Anyway, moving on. The first third of the movie seemed really removed to me. There was all this fighting, and battle, before we even knew the characters. I suppose it introduced them in a way, especially Achilles- but it dragged the audience through a fair bit of unnecessary gore.
Throughout all this, the score really wasn't helping. It was so obvious in parts. The characters are trying to portray emotion, and then the blatant music goes and trumpets the exaggerated emotion in our ears, instead of subtly helping the actor's performance.
Now I suppose I'm giving the wrong impression- I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!!! IT WAS UTTERLY BRILLIANT! It's just I can't write a whole review going "wonderful, fantastic, genius, masterpiece, superb, stupefying, amazing, brilliant, thrilling, engaging, great, terrific.. you get the point." BUT HONESTLY, THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT! AND REALLY WORTH SEEING!
And yes- I'm coming to the hotness factor! Coz quite frankly, I didn't know which way to look! (I'm a 15 y/o girl) AS I said- I love Orlando- sooooooo utterly hot!!! But in this movie he was upstaged by Brad Pitt. I've never really known about Brad Pitt- he seemed a normal Hollywood pretentious movie-star with a big bank account- and I suppose my opinion hasn't really changed- except now he's a Hollywood pretentious movie-star with a big bank account whose also really incredibly hot! (Plus he is a good actor, I've decided, and contrary to someone else's review, I think he was a great casting choice!)
When Achilles was going to fight Hector, it was impossible to chose who I wanted to win. On one hand there was Hector, who is this doting father, a perfect crown-prince with an awesome personality (and on the side not bad-looking), but on the other hand this bad-boy Achilles who, if he dies, will lower the earth's temperature by 6 degrees!! I have to admit that in the end I went for Achilles.
Some bits almost got me crying (along with half the rest of the cinema)! and to the film's credit it also, amazingly, managed to keep the huge fight scenes (mostly)enthralling.
ALL in ALL, it was the type of movie that makes us forget The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc, and that has got to be some of the highest praise I can think of!