Giganto-fetish clouds some of the more personal aspects of splendidly captured war

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 2006)

Epic, mega-budget release directed by the respected Wolfgang Peterson effectively conveys all of the visual splendor and passion the infamous battle of Troy would have entailed. While the production values definitively register as top of the line, the movie almost seems obsessed with it's own grandeur to a fault. Peterson offers some of modern cinema's most spectacularly photographed battle scenes with the unreal flyovers and other various techniques used when creating the thousands of soldiers do battle, but somehow manages to drown out the amazing characters covered in this material taken from The Iliad. Surprisingly the much criticized Brad Pitt in the role of the worlds greatest warrior, Achilles, holds well, with his darkly sensual performance overriding any believability coming from such a small frame and pretty face. Other main characters also blend in well with the roles they were cast in, even the usually laughable Orlando Bloom had the perfect lover-boy/wuss role at his disposal so as to not completely shatter the involvement of the viewer trying to take this questionable cast seriously. Overall, Troy was an awesome sight to behold that lives up to the historical weight thrust upon this battle, although not without compromising some of the more character driven material in favor of wide-eyed, though repetitious battle scenes.