very poor story

Rating: 4/10 (20 September 2005)

Some of the reactions here are overreacted, but it is not a very good movie. That the Troian Horse is not in the "Ilias" from "Homeros" (stupid English Homer)is not a problem at all. The movie is a story about Troy, it is not a movie version of the Ilias.
The Ilias is just one of the many stories about Troy and the Greek and Trojan heroes. There is also the Odysse, but still many, many more. Stories of the stealing of the Paladium by Odysseus and Diomedes, the story of Palamedes (who was responsible for getting Odysseus into war, and was there for hated by Odysseus. Odysseus tricked him and he was accused of treason and then murdered. His father than set up many of the wives of the Greek heroes against their husbands, and also caused some returning ships to shipwreck), etcetera, etcetera.
And what a nonsense that Achilles was not gay in the movie. He is neither in the stories! There are aspects that can support the suggestion that he is gay, but it could just as easily have not been. That is even more likely. So not taking that view on Achilles was certainly not wrong. The same counts for the part of the gods. Why should they be in the picture? They could, but it is not a necessity. The heroes have most likely really existed, the gods of course not. So why us them in the movie? Only because they play a role in the story "Ilias". And if it was to be a filming of the Ilias, there should also be an important part for Diomedes. In the Ilias he is, together with Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, Paris and Odysseus, one of the most important characters. He plays a far bigger role than Priamos, Menelaos, Patroklos, Nestor, Aeneas and Ajax, for example. But in this movie he plays, like in most Troy-movies/series, no part at all. However, this movie is not the "Ilias", but a (bad) story about Troy and some of the heroes.
But what is bad in the story is that too much is altered. - Menelaos is killed?? In fact, he goes home with his wife Helena after the war and is king of Sparta for a long time afterwards. Menelaos is not the biggest hero of the Greeks, but in this movie he is a monster!! What a big brute. The casting does not look good at all. In my opinion Brad Pitt is a good Achilles and Orlando Bloom a good Paris. But Menelaos is not at all as you picture him from the stories. - Helen flees with Paris?? Paris is killed bij Filoktetes and Helena goes home with Menelaos. - Agamemnon is killed by Paris?? In fact, he is killed bij his own wife Klytemnaestra after the war, when he just got home. Achilles was in the Troian horse?? He was already dead before Troy was conquered. - Paris does not know Aeneas, who in real was married to his sister and a son-in-law of Priamos. - Ajax is not killed by Hector. He goes mad and kills himself after he lost the armour of Achilles to Odysseus (Ullyses) after Achilles is killed. Too many important parts are wrongfully altered in my opinion. I think the aspect that the war lasted 10 years (and the warriors all knew each other) is important in the stories. Most of them are sick of the war. They want to go home. In the movie the war seems to last only two weeks????
So afterall, not very good at all ...