Great spectacle,shame about the acting

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2004)

Perhaps I am at fault for expecting too much from Troy given the apparent budget,scale of the production and the quality of many of the actors involved.But I found that as with many movies before it the best bits are in the trailer and the film itself does not live up to what has been promised.
Where Troy succeeds and what makes it good is that it is visually stunning.A massive fleet of CGI ships sails across the Aegean and thousands of Greek soldiers disembark on the beach at Troy.Huge armies of extras and CGI's face each other and do battle in brilliantly worked out battle scenes. The camera sweeps across the cityscape of ancient Troy making it look spectacular and one feels sadness that this going to be destroyed by the end of the film.
The sets too are impressive,particularly the walls of Troy and the palace and temple square give a sense of the splendour of the Trojan civilisation.Also impressive was the costume design with thought going into the design and detail of both the ordinary citizens and the military outfits.
Where Troy fails is with it's plot and character development.The basic storyline is there but is rushed along in order to set the scene for the next action piece and as a result the film becomes disjointed.Adding to this disjointedness is the inclusion of too many subplots.As a result very little screen time and is given to each and the plots are never given the time to develop.The only one which really develops is the romance between Achilles and Briseis.It would have been good to see more time given to the Helen/Paris/Menelaus love triangle(after all this was the root cause of the Trojan war)and the political subterfuge of Agamemnon to give the plot more intrigue which would in turn have given the dissension between Achilles and Agamemnon a greater depth.
Liberties have also been taken with the Illiad itself.For instance the 10 year siege has been wittled down into a matter of weeks,Menelaus and Agamemnon were not killed during the war while Paris was and Achilles was killed by Paris before the destruction of Troy.Achilles death before the end of the war,Paris's death and Helen and Menelaus being reunited would have added greatly to the films depth.
Certain scenes also smack of being borrowed.For instance,Achilles soldiers being slaughtered by Trojan archers when they land on the beach rings a bell with the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan and the subsequent shield grouping is borrowed from Gladiator.The duel between Paris and Menelaus is reminiscent of David and Goliath in the Bible.
Like the plot characters serve only to move the film along to the next action sequence.Characters are given very little to do except look anguished and utter lines about love,duty,honour and respect for the gods.This is particularly true for the women.The only female character who is given any real depth is Briseis as she moves from disdain for Achilles to love for him and being torn between that love and her loyalty to Troy.
There are also too many main characters.LOTR managed to pull this off.Troy does not.There is no feeling of connection between many of the characters and in particular the relationship between Helen and Paris lacks chemistry.
There are moments where the actors are allowed to do their stuff.For instance when Peter O'Toole as Priam asks Achilles for the body of Hector(this is also one of two scenes where Brad Pitt acts well) and when he looks out from the palace balcony at the destruction of Troy,sadness etched in his face.
Overall ,Troy is worth seeing just because of the sheer spectacle of it all but don't expect too much otherwise.Overall rating 5/10.