Not great, but not as bad as critics make out

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2004)

Let's get the bad out of the way first:
Brad Pitt IS miscast. It's a shame, because this major mistake takes away a lot of the film's power and ability to move the audience. I'm not sure why Peterson wanted Pitt, but what he got was Brad Pitt cast as Brad Pitt. You never forget who he is, and he's simply too much modern SoCal in this ancient story. I'm also not sure why the storyline focuses on him as he doesn't have the wherewithal as a character or an actor to make you care very much. And when you have nearly 3 hours to wade through, this lack of a powerful core and heart leaves the film seriously weakened. Comparisons with Gladiator and its hero are inevitable and not very flattering.

For at least the first hour, the film wanders along without any sense of purpose or direction. Dialogue is stilted and unsure, sometimes to the point of laughability, the score follows along with the same uncertainty and you find yourself wondering when the story is going to begin.

And if that is not enough, Petersen keeps whacking you over the head with the words "immortality." This I found the least forgiveable: as if Mr. California wasn't enough, our director keeps reminding us that this story happened aeons ago, and you, dear reader, are in the 21st century. Well, I know that. I just wanted to forget for a couple of hours and immerse myself in the past. But Mr. Petersen wouldn't let me. Bad man.
Ridley did this a lot better.
I read somewhere that Petersen was being very clever doing the CGI because "it was in broad daylight" and Peter Jackson did his battle scenes at night in the rain, so there, one up for the boys in the horse. However, it didn't stop Wolfgang from pinching holus bolus from the LOTR trilogy anyway. At least Sean Bean didn't get to reprise his Boromir death scene in this movie, but Someone Else does it in his stead. Cheap. Even the score started to sound like Howard Shore.
My pet beef: Where was Cassandra? Where was the feeling of cosmic irony, that all this could have been averted if humans had only not acted like humans do, and listened to the woman? The gods knew their humans well enough to let them just be themselves and laugh over the inevitable results. The gods do have the final laugh, but it seems Petersen doesn't care.

Even more annoying is the way Achilles get his well-known fatal injury, but the prophecy is never foretold, so the impact is lessened. In fact, it's almost as though Petersen is afraid of dealing with the gods in this film apart from paying them lip service through cheesy dialogue every now and then. Maybe he thought we wouldn't get it. Maybe he thought he couldn't pull them off. Whatever the reason, it weakens the characters' beliefs, culture, and therefore our involvement.
The good parts of this film are some well-played roles: Peter O'Toole is splendid as the old Trojan King Priam, his scene with Achilles is wrenching, and Pitt lifts for it accordingly. Eric Bana plays Hector with restraint and dignity, and brings back some balance to the film. He certainly gets a better grip on his character than Mr. California. Orlando Bloom channels Legolas a fair bit, especially with the arrows, but plays his role well as a snivelling weakling and the younger brother of Hector whose passion for Helen snowballs the whole fiasco. Diane Kruger as Helen is pretty but forgettable, Rose Byrne makes the most of her scenes as the invented character Briseis, and Brian Cox makes a fairly satisfactory Agamemnon. Sean Bean was refreshing and reliable enough as Odysseus to make me wish the film had been about him more and Achilles less. Now an Odysseus sequel, hey Ridley . . .
The second half of the film is much better than the first, and it all gradually seems to come together at the end and I left feeling I'd quite enjoyed it overall. It's just such a shame that there are enough major flaws to put it into the 'almost but not quite' category. However it's not a waste of 2 hrs 45 minutes. I didn't feel I needed to ask for my money back.

My score: 6.5 out of 10. Half a point for the horse, even if it wasn't in The Iliad.