This movie is not that great

Rating: 5/10 (27 February 2007)

It has been some time now that I have seen this movie. But this movie was the topic of a big discussion I had with friends of mine. We were comparing "Alexander" and "Troy". Most of my friends hated "Alexander" but loved "Troy". This to me is just a mystery. I admit that the production value is high and "Troy" looks epic. But that is all. In my opinion "Troy" isn't epic. It has some major flaws. Most of the characters were uninteresting. Orlando Bloom as Paris (brilliant in Lord of the rings) fails miserably as to portray the handsome and brave prince. Brad Pitt looks lost. And I don't like how they handled the legend about his only weakness (his heel). Because in the movie they don't explain why shooting arrows in his heel will kill Achilles. In the Iliad (from Homerus which describes the Trojan War))they gave the reason why this was his weak spot and would have made much more sense if they just mentioned this fact in the movie. Because historians are still debating if the Trojan War really happened I assume "Troy" is based on the myth. And therefore I missed a very important and most interesting part of the Trojan War being shown or told in "Troy". The reason for Paris to abduct Helen of Sparta. (The war sprang from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, after the goddess Eris ("Strife") gave them a golden apple with the inscription "to the fairest" (sometimes known as the Apple of Discord). The goddesses went to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy.) How could you leave out this part,it would have made "Troy" so much better. The director's take on this story as if it all had really happened is a bit of an insult. I mean the whole Trojan horse fairytale,who would fall for such an obvious trap! Give some credit to people in those days. The action also wasn't very exciting. It certainly doesn't even come close to the epic battles in "Alexander" (which is based on historical facts). The only real positive thing is Eric Bana as Hector. He was convincing. Overall this movie wasn't exciting enough!