Incredibly bad. Nauseatingly so.

Rating: 3/10 (27 March 2006)

If I had a penny for each of the reviews I have read, of people drooling over Eric Bana/ Brad Pitt/ Orlando Bloom, then I'd be a rich woman. How can people justify the utter pointlessness of this movie by referencing the looks of the actors, unfortunate enough to be involved.
The saddest thing is? The Iliad is a terrific book. It has fire, passion, huge battles, death scenes, friendship the lot. If someone made a film based entirely upon it, then people would be blown away. Sometimes the starting material is good enough without alteration, and Wolfgang Petersen chose to ignore this. Or maybe the audience simply didn't *want* an intelligent, thoughtprovoking film on the consequences of war. Maybe all they wanted was hot men in skirts.
Doesn't excuse the fact, how dire this movie was. Achilles and Patroclus's relationship was completely removed, and he weeps more I think for Hector, than Hector's victim. Poor Patroculs's character was mutilated- bang goes the Homeric hero, strong, brave, compassionate and enter whiny boy who doesn't know the right end of a sword.
The acting was terrible with few exceptions. Poor old Orlando Bloom. We all know he's nothing more than eye candy, and that we don't expect him to *act* so I will refrain from savaging him overly much. But Eric Bana and Brad Pitt- two actors who've done much better stuff than this (i.e. Fight Club.) It's sad that Hollywood hasn't realised yet, that shoving a few battles in the mix, a few woman and a nice hero, is not the recipe for a good movie. Perhaps one day, a decent director with Homeric vision, will come along and make Homer proud. Until then, don't waste your money on this trash.
You may be interested to know I have nothing against popular movies, so this is *not* an egoist thing. Bad movies are universal. I've also read the Iliad and assorted literature many, many times.