Not a cure for narcolepsy

Rating: 3/10 (15 May 2004)

This is not so much a bad movie, just an incredibly boring, average movie. Wolfgang Peterson has taken the story of the greatest battle of the ancient world and with consummate misdirection manages to fill about 2 and 1/2 hours of screen time. I hold the onus of the phoned in performances squarely on the shoulders of Herr Peterson because I distinctly remember most of the principle actors in very engaging roles before. Not one of the characters commands the interest of the moviegoer and the dialog is so flat I found my self laughing out loud at the over-the-top musical cues in the background.
Worst of all, the movie is not epic. More than half of the time is taken up with dialog and establishing shots reminiscent of a spaghetti western. Leone fans out there, don't let this perk your ears up. Rather than highlighting the tension of three killers staring each other down in a cemetery at 10 paces (as per Leone), the close-ups in Troy highlight the tension of two armies of pikemen 500 yards apart waiting to decide if two guys will duel. The only sense of epic is an oft repeated shot of a fly-in pass of the city of Troy (or the Greek fleet or the army, it's the same shot). It was a big screen version of a Pan and Scan trick.
The short of this, wait about 6 months until this comes to cable, the film will play equally on the small screen. Don't run the risk of catching it in the theater; it might leave you too sleepy to drive home.