No theme?

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2004)

If I were given the chance to change a single thing in this movie it would be firing James Horner. As if his reputation had no base. Where is the unwritten rule of all great movie scores, especially the ones from movies of such magnitude - you gotta have a theme brother. Where's the theme in "Troy", where's the feeling that something either epic and heroic or evil and malicious is happening on the screen. All we are treated with are female vocals that sound strangely familiar-oh wait, could it be similar to the great score from "Gladiator". "Troy" doesn't hide similarities with the latter, sadly they only make it look cheaper and without its own soul, but still, if they copied elements why not copy them right. In this aspect "Troy" is very much inferior to Scott's Oscar winner, it lacks in the actor's performances(only the two kings show the stuff that great actors are made of-kudos to Peter O'Toole and especially especially to Brian Cox who singlehandedly made every other actor in his scenes look like a good one, decent at the least), visual effects, cinematography, the works. It has nothing going for it that will satisfy a movie freak like me. Sure, those 3 hours went by pretty quickly, and Orlando Bloom even showed some hints of acting in him(the boy is truly awful in his scenes with Helena), Brad Pitt managed to make his hair color look authentic for a while, and Eric Bana didn't sound and feel like a Russel Crowe imitator all of the time, but the feeling that "Troy" could have been one of the better movies of 2004 remains-sadly! Need I start mentioning the book this movie is based on. 6/10