waste of time (SPOILERS)

Rating: 1/10 (15 May 2004)

I find it hard to believe that any studio executive thought it worth putting up $200 million to film the the shoddy script in the first place, but the fact that so many great actors have now ruined their reputations with this film is the biggest tragedy. Troy had so much potential; action, romance, greed, jealousy, a great setting and story, and yet everything was completely screwed up. What's more, they altered everything that was originally part of the myth; Agammemnon died at his wife's hands on returning home after conquering Troy, Achilles was dead long before the horse entered the city gates, and Ajax hung himself as opposed to being killed by Hector. On top of this, the battle scenes were unambitious and pedestrian, marred by the incessant Gladiator-esque waling music used in the background. The dialogue was laughable in the first five minutes until it became evident that it would continue like this for a further two and a half hours. I feel ashamed that a) I paid to see this film, and b) I managed to repeatedly convince myself that the next battle, whether between Achilles and Hector or with the Trojan horse, would be worth staying for instead of leaving the cinema. The entire cast, with the exception of Brendan Gleeson, Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean, were horribly miscast, and contributed to one of the most boring afternoons of my life. Even the costumes, make up and CGI looked painfully out of place - not something you would expect from a film with so much riding on it and so much money pumped into it. Proof, as if more were needed, that Hollywood has been entirely drained of any credibility it might once have had. 1/10