Lacked vision

Rating: 4/10 (1 June 2004)

I've just come back from watching "Troy" and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't actually much good either.
The whole movie lacked vision in my view - the director (Wolfgang Peterson) seemed a little out of his depth and ill at ease with the material. The movie has a fine cast who unfortunately struggled with a poor script. My wife particularly enjoyed Brad Pitt's performance (for reasons other than his vocal delivery) while other good performances came from Peter O'Toole, Brian Cox, Sean Bean and Eric Bana, excellent in the role of Hector.
After the movie, I couldn't help but think another director (an obvious choice would be Peter Jackson) could have done so much better. I also found the CGI tiresome - whereas techniques have improved, CGI for my money still looks like CGI. The sweeping shots of computer generated armies and battlefleets were not impressive and added little to the movie. For students of Greek history, any resemblance to Homer's "Iliad" is purely co-incidental.
I'm pleased that I saw the movie - I just wished I'd waited for the DVD.