They did the best they could...

Rating: 4/10 (16 May 2004)

In my opinion, I don't believe that it was the actors who did a terrible job, but the screenplay. The cheesy love monologues of Paris, the random leadership speeches of Achilles, and the boring arguments of Hector all but satisfied me during this film. I am surprised that I didn't like Peter O'Tooles acting performance. I guess I am still holding him up to the standards of Lawrence of Arabia, the greatest Epic of all time. Even the diaglogue of Helen didn't interest me much. As a fan of Brad Pitt's I couldn't help but clench my teeth at the lines he was spurting out. The fight scenes were gritty and awesome, reminding me of LOTR but there were far too little to override the long and dreary "dramatic" conflicts. The only actor who I believed was his role was Brian Cox. Actors should be able to fit their role so that when they are on screen they are the character and not themselves trying to be that character. Brian Cox did this beautifully.
All in all, I believe that it tried to be a great movie, it tried to be a great war epic, but the dialogue and the story progression were not there. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be one of the best films of the year, and left with only the thought that it was a cheesy action movie that could be compared to The Punisher. If you're a 14 year old girl who crushes over Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom I think you'll appreciate this film more than I did.