Certainly a cut above its director's usual forté of English language films, Troy isn't without serious flaw but sustains enough interest and drama to its conclusion.

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2011)

Wolfgang Peterson's Troy opens with a voice-over proposing to us as to whether or not famous tales; stories of bravery and bloody warfare; fables about the rise and consequent falls of famous nations, kings and civilisations and heroic, blood-thirsty warriors as well as their actions will ever be remembered or recalled over the ages - whether people will ask as to how what happened, happened. It would seem the answer is "yes", but only if it's ever really distilled through the filter Peterson waters-down the tales of old he puts on screen here, and put out to a common-place audience in the manner that it is. If the aim of the film was to educate or inform or make those aware of the sorts of stories and content this piece puts to the screen, then Troy is ancient Greek mythology for the generation of social networkers; a three hour or so slog through warriors and their tirades, family affairs and love lives, a sweeping; scything; swooping film complete with overly dramatic delivery and the odd burst of orchestral music to emphasise drama and expansiveness. Provided with this in mind, it is a wonder that it at all works to the degree that it does.
The film predominately covers two young men from two separate warring side as well as an awful lot in between. Eric Bana's Hector is a Prince to the higher-ups of Troy; a warrior but a politician and a philosopher as well as a mentoring figure to Orlando Bloom's Paris, his brother; Hector is a proud man, pleased that peace exists for the time being where he is based. Then there is Brad Pitt's Achilles, a fearsome warrior with long blonde locks and a stern expression; a man we first encounter in bed with a woman whom looks as if she might have just fallen out of a modern day centrefold shoot, a man effectively a mercenary-for-hire who's late for a large battle his employer, Brian Cox's Greek king Agamemnon, is about to instigate but negates any trouble with both his gyp and his unworldly ability to perform in a one-on-one fight. The situation these people and these kingdoms find themselves in is narrated orally to us in that manner that makes it sound like this is the most important tale you'll ever hear. Agamemnon, the power hungry tyrant, wants Troy and control of its surrounding area; mixed up amidst all of this is Brendan Gleeson's Menelaus, a man angry at those from Troy due to Paris' swiping of his wife Helen (Kruger), whom has fallen in love with Paris and has consequently eloped.
Things escalate, with Achilles tempted into working with Agamemnon and his cronies of which include Sean Bean's (disapointingly cast as the grizzled 'tough-guy' once again and proving that 2007's Far North is the best thing he's done in a while) Odysseus, so much so that asking his mother for help merely sees her provide advice along the lines of: being famous and remembered throughout history beneath this mirage of 'celebrity status' is good; and lopping people's heads off for a living when you aren't driving swords trough their chests is a pretty decent way to go about attaining said status. The film, despite being set thousands of years ago, carries an annoyingly polished feel to it since there is very little grub and grime to proceedings, despite the unusually brave overall downcast nature Peterson applies to the material which was always ripe for that of being poorly played.
The film is driven by rather beautiful, somewhat unrealistically photogenic people such as Pitt; Bana; Bloom and Kruger, each of whom come across as sympathetic as the film can possibly make them regardless of role and are in stark contrast to the older and wearier Gleeson and Cox whom are tyrannical, aggressive, all conquering and vengeful in a far uglier fashion. Achilles' gradual falling out with his king and employer Agamemnon sees Cox inform Pitt that "no-body will remember him" as "history only recognises the kings from centuries gone by" - information I'm not sure on what he's basing, since it was the actions of a fair few from around about this era which has gone on to spawn such thinking; not, with his dreams of stardom and fame, something Pitt wants to here. Their gradual falling out feels more-so symptomatic of this distinction the film makes between the 'young' and 'old' performers more than it does because two rounded characters are genuinely disagreeing.
One cannot watch the film with a certain nagging sensation at the back of one's head, critical observations of 2000's Gladiator about how various feuds were instigated by way of trash-talking and calling one's opponent out alá a contemporary wrestling or boxing match rearing its head at specific points. There is some interesting material later on to do with Hector's battle he has with his council members more broadly linked to theology, proving the film can when it wants to have its 'pretty boy' leads fall foul of the elders therein on more substantial grounds when it wants to, but this sort of stuff is few and far between. Soap opera narrative aside and while it is generally allover the place, I was surprised by how much I came to be involved in the plights of its characters; Troy a war film with an eye on the more grandeur or scoped nature of battle but with an additional, more mature and more downcast eye on the love these characters have for one another behind the scenes. Very little is ultimately won in Troy but an awful lot is lost, and its perception of war as an ugly and terrible thing which does nobody any favours rings rather depressingly true when two supremely advanced nations are unable to come together and instead come to fight. Troy is a thoroughly mixed bag of tricks but one just about worth catching.