Very, Very disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (15 May 2004)

It has been a long time since I've been so disappointed with a movie. I am a big fan of Homer's Illiad, but I am not that sort of fan who always thinks the book is better than the screen adaptation. They are two different sort of art. But, in this particular movie, the adaptation was disastrous. They changed the story completely. I won't get in details in order to avoid spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it yet. But it's horrible. The story doesn't match the poem in almost NO aspect. Love stories which didn't exist, ppl who didn't die (and, come on, there was no need to kill even more characters than the poem itself describes), events which didn't occur in the book, several AND important chronological mistakes, just to name a few... The characters are not well depicted, most of them are shallow (specially the greeks), the movie doesn't even try to avoid the recourse of good x evil, in a history which dind't have these sides v well defined. There are several gaps in the story told in the movies, and, which is worse, things happen and we can't find a cause-effect link. There are a lot of "deus ex macchina" recourses during the movie, which can spoil any screenplay, specially a bad one such as this. It is certainly one of the worst adapted screenplay ever! The direction is not good... The figurine is not accurate and the actors, though a great cast, simply do not show good performances, there is no one I can make an exception of. All in all, it was a GREAT disappointment, and will be for anyone who watches it, specially, I am sure, those who, like me, were highly enthusiastic about this story reaching the screens. It would be better if it hadn't. It can be considered, at most, a mild action movie, with some war in it :) never an epic, and never a well-done movie. Quite unfortunately...
Roberto