as bad as the critics say it is

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2004)

After reading all the lackluster reviews, I didn¡¯t go in with any high expectations. But even with that mindset going in, I came out still unimpressed, uninspired and unaffected by ¡°Troy¡±.
With sub-par performances from the cast, save for Eric Bana perhaps, and the complete elimination of Gods and Goddesses¡¯ interventions, ¡°Troy¡± remained a fiasco that was too long to endure. The cinematography spells expensive, not withstanding the grandeur that was conveyed in the original mythology. Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships, never once exuded the beauty that I imagined; in here, she¡¯s pretty, but lacking the ethereal, otherworldly magnificence and allure. Bloom¡¯s efforts (or lack there of) at portraying Paris were almost laughable, but the character itself was so cowardly and reprehensible that we never once cared for him anyways. Yet, Pitt, whose character shouldn¡¯t even have been the central focus of this story, remains this movie¡¯s biggest problem. While Pitt focused on his physical transformation, he had forgotten the essence, incapable of providing a soul for the movie¡¯s hero. Bana¡¯s Hector was really the heart of the movie, but even his virtues, bravery and likeability could not save this from doom.