A decent account of the trojan war

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2004)

This movie is an optical extravaganza.Impressive sets,costumes,beautiful actors and amazing battle scenes. But where is the soul of this movie?Better:Where is the soul of these characters?What made them tick? One of the problems is that throughout this film the average spectator might not be able to identify with any of them. Sean Bean is more than adequate as odysseus and steals the show!Eric Bana is sympathetic as hector and believable as a prince of troy although he could be less rigid especially in his more "private" moments.Cox and Gleeson looked like brothers but were not convincing as brothers.There was no "feeling" between them...Both of them,though,were excellent in their roles.Peter O'Toule was very good although in some moments was too shakespearean for this type of movie.Brad Pitt didn't impress me as Achilleas.I am a great fan of the Iliad and Greek mythology and still i couldn't understand him.Was it the script or his acting i am not sure.Orlando Bloom is doing everything in his power to convince us that he has no talent whatsoever.Definitely not a prince for whom a daughter of zeus would be persuaded to leave her kingdom.At least he is as wimpy as in the original text.Kruger whines too much and seems too indecisive to be Helen of sparta,but this is more a script problem than her acting problem. Overall,decent acting,impressive effects but a flawed script especially in the character analysis.