Dance Achilles, Dance!

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2006)

I never made the least effort to see this when it came out in theaters. I KNEW it was going to ruin the story, and I wasn't at all comfortable with the cast selected to fill the major roles.
But I happened upon it on television tonight.
This thing is all but a total bore to sit through. I switched the channel a couple of times to see if anything else was on then decided to give it a chance for one reason and one reason only: Choreography. HA!
I sort of enjoyed the ballet like movements of Brad Pitt. He used a sort of signature trot when he ran and is especially amusing when he takes medium length leaps before jamming his sword into an opponents neck. His movements give a measure of grace to his one-on-one swordplay scenes. This was the only thing that made it possible to believe that he was the preeminent warrior of the story.
Early on, Pitt's light gymnastics led me to expect beautiful full-scale battles for Troy, but such was not the case. No one else knew how to dance.
The only other oddly distinguished battle character was a grizzly large guy, with a long handled hammer as his weapon, that I supposed to be Hercules.
The music was unsteady and often needlessly schmaltzy.
Overall this film, despite having come from brilliant source, is entirely uninspired except for Brad Pitt's dancing.