Unspectacular "Troy"

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2004)

I thought I was going to truly hate this film but after viewing it and thinking about it for a day I realized that while it has nothing to make it special it's not that bad on a purely entertainment level. This is of course based (Loosely) on Homer's "The Iliad" and early on we see the Trojan forces on a peace mission in Sparta where Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) discovers that his wife Helen (Diane Kruger) has fled with Paris (Orlando Bloom) to Troy. Paris is warned by his brother Hector (Eric Bana) that this will probably start a war but he insists that they are in love. Menelaus's brother Agamemnon of Mycenae (Brian Cox) views this as the perfect opportunity to wage war and take over Troy but his best warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) is very independent and doesn't hold back his lack of respect for him.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****
The united Greek forces head to Troy to wage war but Priam (Peter O'Toole) and his army are ready at the walls and score a victory as they momentarily repel Agamemnon's army. At night Hector leads the Trojan army on an assault while they are sleeping and Hector kills who he believes is Achilles but it turns out to be his cousin instead. Achilles finds out and is furious and heads to the gate to fight Hector one on one. Achilles wins and later the Greeks have an idea on penetrating the walls of Troy by building the Trojan horse and sneaking inside.
This film is directed by Wolfgang Petersen who is one of those directors that can easily handle an epic film of this size but the screenplay that accompanies this story doesn't do it any justice. The dialogue is just unbelievable and it crosses the border into silliness and Kruger especially is forced to utter some modern dialogue. Does her Helen come across as someone you would go to war over? Audiences have become totally accustomed to CGI effects and films such as this are just not special looking and the lack of characterizations and tedious dialogue stick out even more. Pitt has been getting a lot of negative feedback for his role as Achilles and I can't argue that he's probably miscast but at the same time I think he makes this film watchable. Pitt is one of the biggest stars in the world and a solid actor and even in a misguided film such as this his incredible screen persona is evident. Let's face it, you can't take your eyes off of him even though this film lasts over two and a half hours. From the battle scenes to the musical score this is a film that screams "I want to be another Gladiator"! Unfortunately, it's not but this is a mildly entertaining sword flick that is no worse than some of the old Hollywood films of the past.