Troy: 8/10

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2004)

Epics are scarce now. We have a few wanna-be epics (like Master and Commander; I'm not counting the Lord of the Rings movies because, well, I don't feel that they are), but nothing substantial. And although we won't be able to get another Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments, we have great ones coming out this summer. Troy is one of them. It clocks in a little over two-and-a-half hours, but has all of the makings of an epic-characters, plot, excitement.
Based off Homer's The Iliad, sans most of the polytheism, Troy begins with Achilles (Brad Pitt) killing the opposing army's strongest man in one blow of the sword. Then the Greek army, led by Agamemnon (Brian Cox), goes to invade Troy and enlarge the Greek empire even more. However, Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) sends the army there because Paris (Orlando Bloom) captured his wife Helen (Diane Kruger) and took her to Troy. Now the two armies (Agamemnon's and Achilles's, since Achilles does not fight for Agamemnon) go to fight against the Trojan army.
What really sold me about the movie was not the great acting (for the most part), or the action scenes, but the technical aspects. The locations were beautiful, as were all of the sets. I see where most of the famed $200 million went. Also, the cinematography was amazing-the things that could be done with the camera were very surprising. I was also surprised that the editing was not too choppy, which showed me that director Wolfgang Petersen did not want to make this for the MTV generation-this could be something that could live on for a long time.
I had mixed feelings on David Benioff's (25th Hour) script. Mostly, it kept the movie exciting, even during the parts others felt were boring, and it seemed to move the movie along. It was well-written and seemed plausible. However, there was one thing that really irked me. That was one scene in which Achilles was crying. I can understand how a normal person would cry in that situation, but Achilles is a tough-as-nails guy! It's like seeing James Bond cry. It just discredits the whole thing.
Despite others, I felt that Pitt was very good in his role-he seemed to get this part down well. He obviously put a lot of time into his role. Eric Bana, as Hector, did a great job, too. But now I must come to Orlando Bloom. I've always felt he was over-exposed for no reason, and Troy backs that up. When saying his lines, it seems like he wasn't doing anything with them. I was convinced that he was talking like English was a foreign language. His character did nothing for me-he was almost as annoying as Johnny Depp's character in Secret Window. He knows nothing of life, yet he forces the destruction of everyone around him. I wish someone had defenestrated him. As for the "old men talking" (there's a quote in the film saying, "War is young men dying and old men talking"), all of them were good but not memorable.
The fighting scenes were amazing. All of those extras, everything so exact. It's a shame that this film has been getting mediocre reviews. Those $200 million well-spent will go to waste.
My rating: 8/10
Rated R for graphic violence and some sexuality/nudity.