Troy was one of the most devastating battles fought in history.

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2004)

Troy is an interesting movie because it focuses on the battle of Troy, rather than the emotional story behind it. One would most likely opt to represent the emotional story but then, one would opt for the epic motion picture as well.
And so the makers of this movie have chosen to go down that path of making this a huge movie. And in concentrating the majority of the movie on the war, rather than the emotion has caused this movie to lag.
I'm not saying this movie is bad. I recommend it to those people who are interested in Ancient Greek History... or seeing Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean in a skirt. It's great for entertainment, but the audience gets no satisfaction out of it and wonder what went wrong and why it feels like something was missing in the film.
One thing that failed in this movie was the chemistry between Helen (Diane Kruger) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). The actors were unable to persuade the audience to sympathies with them because their relationship was not emphasised enough. I do not blame the actors for this. It wasn't their fault. There is only so much two actors can cram into not even 20 minutes of screen time together.
Aside from Hector and Achilles, the story did not build up enough character for the audience to fully empathise with the other characters. Diane Kruger is beautiful, I'll give her that. And I felt sorry for Helen when she was crying to Hector because she felt it was her fault that this war started. But other than that, her character failed.
And it is not entirely her fault. The movie was unforgiving to the rest of the characters because it chose to show the battles other than the emotion of the story. Diane Kruger did the best she could in the small amount of time she had to represent a portrayal of Helen of Argos/Sparta/Troy
Did anyone else think that the beginning of this movie went awfully fast? It was almost like the direction of the film said "Stuff the emotion, we want the battle!".
I agree with the fact that Troy is said to be one of the most devastating battles fought in the history of the world but is it worth sacrificing the emotional story for it?
As for the story telling, it confuses audiences. Achilles (Brad Pitt) is not someone you would admire for being a hero. He is a legend and a hero to some extent. But he did not fight for anyone. He only fought for his own glory. The audience is following the story on the side of Achilles (or the rest of the mainland Greeks) Which the audience finds troubling. Because the audience usually sees the side of the story on a "good vs evil" side or a "hero vs villain" side. Achilles was not a villain but the audience feels he is when he kills Hector and drags his body back to the camp. And of course, the film makers try to get the audience to empathise with Achilles when he cries over Hector's body.
On the other hand, before Hector dies, he is the hero. He's the noble one to the audience. He fights for Troy. He sacrifices himself for Troy. And the audience finds that admirable. He is the "Good" in this story. But us, as the audience, are seeing the story on the side of Achilles. It is slightly frustrating in this way because the audience wants to follow Hector who is the other protagonist in this story.
I also want to mention the performance of Sean Bean (Odysseus) who is best known for his role as Boromir in the Lord of the Rings. If Sean Bean got more lines or more screen time, it would have been excellent. For someone who is so underrated as Sean Bean and for someone who got not nearly enough the screen time he deserved, he did a fantastic job.
If the movie balanced the emotion with the battles, it would have been fantastic. It is still a good, watchable movie if you have nothing to do one Saturday arvo, highly recommended.