Not Sincere, Unevenly Paced, Could Have Been Better!

Rating: 6/10 (9 October 2008)

The name Troy reminds us of the Trojan War portrayed by Homer in his Iliad. And thus when the movie came out, I had watched it hoping to find a depiction of the same. But this movie Troy merely borrows names and characters from Homer's Iliad and otherwise is not such a sincere adaptation of the original. What is worse is that the movie does not have a proper pace and the overall handling of the plot is not to the mark.
The primary reason the Trojan War took place is because the Gods wanted it to take place. Humans by themselves could never have done the deeds that led to the war. It was the madness that Gods infected their subjects with that led them to wage a war of madness on each other. This movie decides to go for an alternate treatment of the Trojan War. It removes the Gods. There are no Gods in this movie. If there are no Gods in the movie, then the act of Prince of Paris running away with Helen looks too feeble and weak. The movie fails to convince us the need of war. And when there is no need of a war, the overall enjoyment of the movie is lowered.
The overall depth of the characters is poor. There is not much of character development that leads to understand their actions, their strengths and their weaknesses. Perhaps Achilles is the best done character though he is not a consistent character. Some of what he does at the end of the movie is not consistent with his overall attitude throughout the movie. The King of Troy, Priam is the only character that I could enjoy watching apart from Achilles. The movie lacks in its portrayal of characters.
But there is something good in the movie after all. In spite of the overall plot being poorly handled, there is some really good action to watch out for. The two wars in the movie and the photography is wonderfully done. The scenery is wonderful. And the best part of the movie to me is the single mano-e-mano battle between Hector and Achilles. This is among the most well shot and choreographed fights I have seen in a long time. However, the reactions on the faces of the relatives of Hector who know that the end is near is too artificial and disturbing to the beauty of the fight.
Overall, the movie is not enjoyable. I especially did not like the way the ending of the movie is handled. It is too lame. Today, when I get the chance I do not like to see the whole movie. I simply switch to the scenes that are well done but it is simply not possible for me to watch the whole movie again.