Just read Homer instead

Rating: 3/10 (17 May 2004)

It's not that this movie is so inherently awful. It's that it managed to take what is known to be one of the greatest stories ever told and mangle it so badly. I think the chief problem is lack of vision on the part of the director (and/or writer). He seems to want to make an epic of this, and yet he doesn't want epic characters or events. (Witness the lack of gods and the rather blandness of the heroes.) The plot moves forward mostly as an afterthought. I still have no idea why several of the key decisions where made by some of the key characters. Most of the characters are rendered horribly two-dimensional. (Agamemnon, Menelaus, even Priam for the most part is more a caricature than a character.) And he seems to forget about plot points by the end of the movie. A lot of this could be forgiven if the fight scenes were more interesting and inspired, but even as a non-brain action movie this one falls pretty flat. (Yes, we've been spoiled by the constant one-upping action movies of late.)
Of course, the director isn't alone in contributing to the sub-standard quality of this one. The acting is generally unremarkable. (Hector and Odysseus are notable exceptions. Alas, we see too little of the latter!)
The not-quite-redeeming qualities of this movie are nice establishing shots and views of the armies moving to fight and, if you're in to this, Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom looking pretty.
For my money, I'd say skip this one. If you want to see Pitt or Bloom, rent it later and turn the sound off. You won't miss anything and you could listen to the original poem on CD. Better yet, read the original. (Just make sure to get the Lattimore or Fitzgerald translation.) With the 3 hours that this one lasts (including ads), you'll get pretty far. And you'll both enjoy Homer more and you'll probably learn more, too.