Great visuals but lesser bits

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2004)

I really wanted to give this film a 7,5, but well, that's not possible.
"Why?" you may ask.
Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good movie, a lust for the eye and a beautiful choreography of the duels (probably the best part of the movie. But there are some things that rob this movie from a soul.
Let's start with the main actors.
Eric Bana: What a surprise! This guy probably had the best performance of the movie. The role of Hector had some emotions he could play with, and Bana did this pretty good. He had the best non-verbal acting of the movie. Maybe something he learned on the Hulk? At first I thought, why the heck did they cast him as the greatest warrior of Troy? But he had a strong physical and emotional presence. He looked lean and strong and it was nice to see that you don't have to be a cliché'd pretty boy like Pitt or a massive barbarian type to play a convincing great warrior.
Brad Pitt: As Achilles he's supposed to be an 'einselganger' gloryhound but still the audience is supposed to sympathize with him. But I don't know... Something was wrong. He was neither a convincing glory hound or a sympathetic character. Maybe he should have shown more pleasure in showing of his excellent fighting skills or fighting, but he was very stoic. That's my overall critique of Pitt, he's to emotionless.
Orlando Bloom: Not that bad a performance as a egocentric, naive boy.
Then the other thing that disturbed me. The music. Come on man... Music is supposed to show the emotions of the moment. This soundtrack was to much of a generic bombastic type. Not very cued in on what was happening on the screen. It seemed like the composer must have thought: as long as it sounds orchestral and big we shouldn't pay any further attention. Not that this was always so, but most of the time it was. It tried to mimic Gladiator's epic classic score, but fails miserably. Not a lot of recognisable themes.
But still I give this an 8. Although the movie lacks passion, it still is a great movie to look at and I'm a sucker for great epic battles, well choreographed duels and swords& armor.