Could Have Been Brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2004)

Spoilers
Having been intimately familiar with the legends this was based off of, it's not unfair to say that I was a very biased audience. And even having seen it, I really think that it blew its potential. The discrepencies between the myth and this movie were needless, and didn't add to the plot. To me, it seemed as though Petersen was cutting corners to make a story that was easier to translate into film, fulfilling tropes and archetypes rather than take some initiative and tell it the way it could have been told. The deaths of Menelaus and Agamemnon in particular seemed to be thrown in just to give the audience some moral satisfaction, that they got what was coming to them. Meanwhile, in the myth, Helen goes back with Menelaus, and Agamemnon takes Priam's youngest daughter as a concubine and returns home (to be murdered by his vexed wife, but that's entirely another story).
At the end, I felt like this movie should have been bigger than it was. Just in depth and production, this didn't seem like it was that big a deal. It was just another movie. The script was choppy and hammy, and everything seemed rushed to make a war that was supposed to last twenty years into a movie that lasted a little over two hours. The complete exclusion of anything supernatural also hurt this film, I believe. And if they keep that philosophy for the might-happen sequel of the Oddessey, I don't think it will be even remotely recognizable.
But even if I set aside the knowledge I had going into this film, I don't think it was that good. With the exception of Eric Bana, Rose Bryne, Saffron Burrows (I know, I was surprised too) and Brendon Gleeson, everyone just seemed to be trying too hard and not pulling it off. The action sequences weren't exactly innovative, and I think should've been considerably more graphic. I mean, all the characters are going on about how horrible the war is, but then we get this toned-down version of Gladiator to support that? Doesn't really add up for me, anyway.