Entertaining movie, worth seeing at least once

Rating: 9/10 (11 May 2004)

I saw a screening of Troy just a few hours ago (this was written May 5th), so the details are still pretty fresh in my mind. [Minor spoilers]
Acting: The characters of Hector (Eric Bana), Achilles (Brad Pitt), Briseis (Rose Byrne), and Priam (Peter O'Toole) were all very well-acted. Unfortunately, Paris (Orlando Bloom) and Helen (Diane Kruger) were poorly constructed characters. Paris is supposed a callow boy, but came across as just awkward with Orlando Bloom's acting. Of course, the dialogue was stilted to begin with. There were attempts to develop Helen from the characterization that Paris suffered, but in the end, it failed. The scenes and characters felt cheesy, rather than naive and irrationally passionate. We're supposed to hate or at least dislike these characters but I found myself more annoyed than anything else. Odysseus (Sean Bean, of LOTR fame) and Andromache (Saffron Burrows) were well-done, but they were definitely secondary (or tertiary?) characters.
Accuracy (to the Illiad): Glaringly, the movie is set over the course of about 14 days, when the Trojan War in the Illiad lasts for over 10 years. There are other artistic licenses that were taken that didn't detract too much from the story, in the sense that the audience cracked up when we realized that their war ran for only 14 days.
Battle scenes: Pretty spectacular. Lots of blood (sometimes, I had trouble distinguishing the blood spray from what I think were cap codes), insane pyrotechnics (you'll see what I mean after you see the movie), fantastic swordplay, and of course archery (Orlando Bloom's first and best claim to fame to date), death, destruction, mayhem at its finest. They were spaced apart pretty well and so were not overwhelming.
Love scenes: As long as they weren't between Helen and Paris, they were believable and well-done. Briseis and Achilles was a stretch considering the circumstances and the speed, but the emotions still felt genuine. Don't get me started on Helen and Paris.
Summary: Fun war movie, with lots of battle scenes and eye-candy males (sometimes, the director get over-enthusiastic when filming Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom). I'll see it again when it hits theatres, if only because Eric Bana (as a relative unknown for those of us who hadn't seen The Hulk) is really fantastic -- both in terms of acting and physically. Worked well for both males and females.