Flawed, yes...but bad? no

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2004)

I was overseas when Troy was released in the United States but I kept up with the press it received none the less, and, I must say, I was quite shocked by the reviews I read. Nevertheless, being the movie buff that I am, I had to see it as soon as I got back. Personally, I didn't think the movie was all that bad. Of course it had its flaws when compared to Homer's Iliad, but what book-to-movie adaptation doesn't? Its absolutely impossible to 100% translate whats on page to whats on screen. If that were done, the movie would have been a disaster. And I have read comments about how the movie was bad because it didnt include the gods and how it featured too much Brad Pitt. But lets face reality here. Could this movie (director, producers, what have you) have included the gods and actually pulled it off in a non-comical way. The gods work in a movie such as Disney's "Herculese" when they are drawn in gaudy costumes and outrageous colors, because that is fun and it shows the grandoisity of their characters. It also works in a movie like "Clash of the Titans" because the whole movie revolves around them. But in a live action, historically based movie like Troy I think it is very hard to correctly display the gods without them being cheesy. Honestly, wasn't the depiction in "Clash of the Titans" kind of funny anyway? "Troy" has to be judged from a different angle than The Iliad because "Troy" is looking to portray this whole ordeal from a historical, "this is real life" standpoint- not form a fantasy, epic poem view with gods flying around in the air and discussing their matters in the heavens as battle rages on. In my opinion, that would have spoiled the movie. And of course this movie is going to be Brad Piit-centric. If you've read they Iliad, the whole thing is Achilles-centric. The whole poem revolved around his character and his choice between pride, glory and anonimity. This is not to say, however, that the character wasnt fleshed out enough. I do believe that the writers could have done a better job of showing this duality through dialouge and actions. All that said I have a few more comments. Eric Bana played an incredible Hector and I actually felt emotion when he was killed by Achilles. Their fight was incredible as well, as was the build up to it. Orlando Bloom did fairly well, but he basically played his real life self-the pretty boy who can shoot a bow and arrow. "Troy" had huge expectations that it didn't entirely live up to, but with big summer blockbusters that present themselves as highly serious in their trailers, you have to go into expecting the worst. That makes it much easier to concentrate on what is actually good about the movie.