Good, not Great

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2004)

Despite not really living up to it's epic expectations I found this film fairly enjoyable. I personally like what they did with the story and humanizing it, I do agree with some who have said that removing the gods removes a huge chunk and focus of Homer's legendary story and the culture as well, but when you consider Hollywood's previous failures with attempting to bring the Greek Gods to the screen I am glad they did not attempt it in the end. The primary acting in this movie leaves something to be desired and is on the whole weakly lead, what makes this film truly work is the brilliance of the supporting cast. Eric Bana was on the whole good as Hector but the other primary players: Pitt, Bloom, and Kruger are where the weakness lies. There are some scenes with these actors where I feel like crying BRILLIANT, and then the next scene with them I feel like yelling, Who in their right mind would hire this person, that was terrible. To be fair I am not sure that is entirely the actors fault as the characerization is a little weird. The Supporting cast on the other hand was all terrifically and brilliantly characterized. Sean Bean, Brian Cox, Brendon Gleason, and Julian Glover are all excellent character actors, Julie Christie steels the single scene she is in with Pitt. And of Course rounding out the supporting cast is a man who I believe cannot give a bad performance, Peter O'Toole, and Kings seem to be his forte. He plays the tragic Priam brilliantly. The two best scenes in the movie are the initial fight the Achilles is in and the fight between Hector and Achilles. Definitely a good film, just not great.
7/10