Not bad, but not so good either.

Rating: Null/10 (15 May 2004)

Umm, I saw this movie last night and they even made us fill out a Neilsen survey regarding it afterwards, but I can't give it a great review (not that our surveys gave us much room to review it).
Where are the Gods? Without the soap opera background of the gods, this movie makes much less sense. Without the competition for the golden apple, and aphrodite's meddling with Helen and Paris, they just seem like a bunch of spoiled kids. "Whoops, bro, I brought this chick back with me from Sparta." I mean, really. What kind of statecraft is that? It means more that the goddess of love has made Helen's defection fate instead of a stupid accident.
I also feel bad for the tons of High School students who may never read the Iliad and may never know WHY Achilles' was so invicible and and WHY an arrow in the ankle killed him when nothing else could. It's implied his mother is a nymph (not that the word is even used) but the story of his ankle is never explained. I think this movie would have been much better in two parts, with a better screenwriter. I mean, I loved this story when I read it--it was like an ancient potboiler I couldn't put down. I couldn't believe Helen and Paris were in love at all, and that was the start of this whole war. Without believing that, the rest of the movie seems a little hollow.
On the positive side, the fight scenes were great. Just what I needed to see about ancient warfare--no fancy schmancy fake stuff, just men actually fighting face to face with very little of that computer generated crap that is going around nowadays. Some skill here for sure.
And Eric Bana is great! I find him believable in almost everything I see him in. The only TRULY three-dimensional character in the movie (too bad the women didn't have the opportunity to flesh out there characters like he did). After this, I'd watch him at the opening of an envelope. Too bad one man and some nice fighting scenes can't save this movie.

I would buy the DVD, though...as long as I could mute certain stupid speeches, ffd through the scenes with the long lost Hansen brother (I mean Patroclus) and learn to get over the lovely tie dyed mu mus (I know blue is a royal color and that they wore tunics, but COME ON).
Anyhow, that's my two or three cents.