Fun at times, clunky in others.

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2004)

I enjoyed this film...but I don't feel that it lived up to the hype that surrounded it. Brad Pitt as Achilles did hold some sort of 'god-like' majesty, but it wasn't enough to make me believe this movie. I thought when walking into Troy, that I was going to see some sort of period-epic...which it was, but it was also heavily centered around how god-like Achilles was. Like Roger Ebert, I think that the dialogue and the pacing was clunky and I really disliked the moments when entire battles would come to a near-complete halt just so the two representatives of either army could fight in a melodramatic romp around and at each other. (Once in Ajax vs Hector, again in Hector versus the cousin of Achilles). The characterization is somewhat bland, but there nonetheless. Achilles is the lone warrior who does not believe in his king...regardless of whether or not he believes that the king has control. The battle scenes aren't that wonderful either...and I was really amazed how 50,000 Greeks had an army tantamount to the size of the 250,000 orcs in Return of the King. Roger Ebert commented on how the battles take your mind off of the actual war, and more so on the effects themselves...he couldn't be more correct.
Through the bickering, I must say that what I enjoyed about this film was the incredible choreography in the one-on-one fight scenes. I was blown away by the magnificence of Hector vs Achilles and how gracefully the fight moved along. It was, in my opinion, one of the best "sword/javelin fights on screen", although I am completely unaware of how many of those there have been in the past. This isn't a bad film...but it is no Return of the King and no Spartacus.