A movie made for the enjoyment of others who don't want to read

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2004)

When I first saw the poster and read the title, I frowned. I honestly thought this would be a major dive. But when I saw it, I was immediately captivated by the opening lines by Sean Bean, who plays Odysseus.
It was an excellent done movie: emotional, gripping, action packed, romantic...very few humorous lines, but this was supposed to be a serious film, not a comedy. The tension breakers weren't in the lines, but the scenes that showed how these people lived apart from fighting.
I was pleased with Brad Pitt and how he portrayed his character, as well as Eric Bana. Sean Bean and O'Toole did an superb job as well. O'Toole kinda freaked me out in some of his shots and he played a wonderful father when he confronted Archilles for the return of his dead son's body.
I'm glad that the gods were NOT involved in this story. It would have ruined it and have turned it into a comedy. I'm glad they didn't make it exactly according to the Illiad, how they switched some things. They BASED it ON the Illiad, not repeated the poem word for word.
They didn't make Archilles a god because what's the fun in that? The fun is knowing how a man, BLESSED by the warlords, could be so great. They made us see that he was a human that loved just like us (Archilles love for Brisies). It shows us how love for a person makes us do drastic things, things we would usually never do (examples are Paris and his fight against that big dude--sorry, I forgot his name but it's Helen's husband. And Archilles leaving a battle because of Brisies. Priam's love by going into the enemy's territory to regains his son's remains.) We're not supposed to dwell on how different the movie is compared to the book; we're supposed to just sit back and enjoy a movie that was inspired by a battle that happened 3,000 years ago, that most people didn't know of until now.
It takes a lot of talent and ability to make a movie that is incredibly close to everyone's imagery of the book. And I think that Wolfgang did an awesome job of it. Not everyone's imagery is the same, but he tried his best.
I loved Troy, I've seen it twice in theaters and I would continue to see it more and support its grossings if the money in my wallet could keep refilling itself. And credit cards only go so far.
TROY was beautifully written, beautifully portrayed. Some people have complained how they shot the movie, making many grounds shots that rose to look at the walls of Troy and made it look magnificent. And really, that's what Troy was. The walls had never been breached. It was were a man could gain 'immortality' according to Archilles. This movie was letting us see the last of Troy's beauty because after that battle, Troy was no longer a city that had never been breached, it was just another city that came under the rule of another greedy man.
Troy is a movie that shows that humans haven't changed in their ambitions, their love, their greed, their honor and pride. How we haven't changed in making right decisions and wrong decisions, how everything still has a cause-and-effect and how short life really is. They show us how weak the human body is, how beautiful life is because we are doomed. It makes the characters so realistic that you feel as if you actually KNOW these characters.
I was overall impressed with this movie and I really encourage others to see it. It's a lot better than most war movies; this shows the things that happen when the battles aren't being fought. This shows what that these soldiers were actually people, who had families and sons and daughters, families that we chose to forget to make a better movie, because it's easier to see men who we know nothing of die, then to see men that had just carved a little wooden horse for his son die. We're reminded how despite being called different names, having different blood, that we are all the same, that we loved and lived.
Really, go see this movie, it's NOT a WASTE of money.