Big, big cinematography!

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2004)

I just saw the German language version of TROY and I enjoyed it! As everyone should know the story for this picture is taken from Homer's "Ilias". But beware if you think that you can spare yourself some history studies. Maybe it can help understand and/or imagine how times must have been but you should mainly just enjoy watching some very fine actors in superb sets.
Minor spoilers inside!!
King Agamemnon tries to unite the different peoples of Greece but he is simply after becoming the greatest power. He is using Achilles as his biggest weapon because of his fighting skills, although Achilles has his own mind and actually distastes Agamemnon's lust for power. But nevertheless Achilles is just not the good guy as we meet him as an adolescent and arrogant young man. In the meantime King Menelaus of Sparta hosts festivities for the princes Hector and Paris of Troy to celebrate a new alliance between Sparta and Troy. But Paris the younger brother and the beautiful Helena and wife to Menelaus fall in love with each other. When Paris discloses to his brother that he took Helena with them on their voyage home to Troy, he immediately knows that this calls for retaliation from the Spartans. King Menelaus asks his brother Agamemnon to help him attack the people of Troy to kill Paris and Helena to get even. Agamemnon agrees but dreams of defeating the whole of Troy...
Even though most of the story is known, it is very interesting to watch how the different actors bring life to each character and the visualization of the epic sets. The wide shots of the city of Troy from within and without are truly breathtaking and so much better than the Rome shots from Gladiator. Just as good are the shots of the hundreds (or thousands - how much of it is CG? Thank god that I could not see what was and what was not) of Trojans and Greeks fighting. I also have to praise the fight choreography of the one-on-one battles.
It is the dialogue that here and there comes around too artificial and leaves me unsatisfied. And I have to add that I didn't like the way Achilles is portrayed but that is more about the script and less about Brad Pitt. For me it is just unbelievable that one person can be so arrogant, lusting for fame and driven by testosterone while in other moments he is so much wiser, emotional, caring and more honorable than his peers. Another thing was awkward: Pitt is not dubbed by the voice that normally dubs him but the dubbing voice of Nic Cage which doesn't quite fit here. That and the bad CG of the Greek fleet were hard to watch but I nevertheless had a good time at the theater and let me tell you that I liked Troy so much better than van Helsing!!!