Why even try this??

Rating: 3/10 (9 November 2005)

OK, what one first has to do when viewing this film is if they have any knowledge of the Illiad to forget it and just watch the movie for what it is. The movie in itself is a fairly good movie, it has good special effects, good fight scenes, and is fairly well acted by all, save the horrible Orlando Bloom.
However, to those of us who have knowledge of the Illiad, one question comes to mind, and that is why would an established filmmaker even attempt this film. This story is so huge I find it very difficult to fathom a two hour or two 1/2 hour movie, a mini-series maybe, but that is still stretching it. Now I know that there is the idea of a challenge and wanting to go for the glory by making a film with a great story. But then why would one discard huge facts about the story crucial to the understanding of the characters and their emotions.
Just a few examples, in the original stories by Homer, the Trojan war takes 12 years rather than 2 days or however long it took in the movie. Another is the almost omission of the funeral of Patroclus, this scene may be the most important event in the entire Trojan war (when Achilles climbs atop the burning funeral pyre and cuts his hair off as a sacrifice to his fallen friend and swears vengeance on Hector and the Trojans) because it is the event that brings on the fury of Achilles (the opening line of the entire Illiad) and allows him to fight against the Greeks turning the tide of the war. I also felt it was a mistake to simply not involve the Gods in the story at all, they play a major role in the original story. The Gods play roles in the outcomes of several battles during the story, are the parents of certain characters including Achilles, and if it were not for the Gods involvement I am convinced that Hector would have beat Achilles in their showdown.
These are only a few of the examples that these filmmakers overlooked in making this film. Now I have no problem with somebody telling their own version of the story of Troy, and if this what Wolfgang Peterson and Company claimed this to be it is actually a decent movie, however do not give Homer credit like they do because this is not Homer's Trojan war.