Pretty good but not amazing

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2004)

First my two real gripes with this film :
The music was really really bad, it sounded like it was put together by a child cut-&-pasting the parts not used in Braveheart, Gladiator and LoTR.
Brad Pitt's performance was fine in most regards (his fights were at best average but that may be editing or choreography to blame) but he was not a good choice for the role. He's just too much of a pretty-boy to pass for a hardened warrior no matter how many weights he lifts. If they had retained his original relationship to Patroclus it may have worked better but as it was he was jarringly inappropriate.

Now the good things :
The script and story, while not very similar to the Iliad, do bear a passing resemblance and are well put together. The film maintains a good balance of story and action throughout and is well paced for such a long film. The writers did a very good job of replacing the parts of the Iliad which would simply not have worked with a modern audience with more modern plot devices and twists.
The acting is of a generally high standard throughout and the characters manage to remain memorable and distinctive, even those that have relatively minor and dry roles which is a credit to the casting (makes me wonder how Pitt got selected).
The battle scenes are good if not amazing. They aren't in the same league as the LoTR trilogy but that's hardly surprising.
The Editing and Direction are polished and smooth if rather formulaic and predictable. It seems that this is how all Petersen's movies will be now but even the most mindless entertainment has it's value when done well.
Generally a good film and definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
6/10 (would have been 7/10 if Brian Blessed had played Agamemnon)