Troy: Movie Review

[Japic]

Like KMan with his belated Spiderman 2 review I was a little late in seeing the movie Troy. I know that its been out for quite a while now, but I finally got around to seeing it and was quite impressed.

The storyline was pretty good, the fighting was AWESOME. Well any fight scene that revolved around Acillies (Brad Pitt) anyhow. THe fluid grace by which he slaughters perople is astounding. I do some swordfighting in my spare time, but to see those were just awesome, it kind of made me ashamed to say that I'm not bad at it. Of course all of his were coreographed, but whose counting.

Anyhow, if you havent, it's a MUST SEE. Although as late as this is, you may have to wait for video.

[VemuKhaham]

I agree with some of what you say, as the fighting parts were indeed awesome and very well filmed.

But for those who know the real mythology and expect to see the story as it was told there, you should be warned that you might be a bit dissapointed. At least, I was... The story was way too much focused on Brad Pitt and his muscle, and many many things and characters that played a very important role in the real mythology were simply cut from the story or almost neglected. And these were not simply some nice side stories or whatever; no they were some of the major scenes and characters I'd hoped to see filmed and worked out well.
For those who do not wish to know what exactly I mean by this, skip the text between lines as it will contain the most important examples:

---

- The gods were entirely left out, and they could have made the difference between a nice story and a real mythology on movie. It could have had many more scenes like the priest Laocoon and his sons swallowed by the serpent of Hades, the black death which struck the camp of the greek because of Apollo's priestess, Briseis, enslaved by them, Paris who was guided by Athens to fire his arrow at Achilles... Especially the plague could have made alot of difference (see next point).
- In the movie it seemed to mee that the greek had been at the gates of Troy for, say, a couple of weeks or at most a year or so. In fact, they were there ten years, making the story an epic one and leaving that out reduced that touch greatly. Especially because many important things, like the plague, happened in that time.
- Odysseus was played well by Sean Bean but during the entire movie I had only spotted him a few times, which was a pity.

---

Furthermore, I wasn't impressed by the acting of the major stars in it, like Orlando Bloom (Paris) or Brad Pitt (Achilles). I liked Sean Bean (Odysseus) and Primaos, king of Troy (don't know the actor himself).

Well, there are more positive things then just the fighting I think:

- The movie had alot content from both sides of the war, the Troyans and the Greek. Both had major characters representing them, and it created a feeling that both sides were somehow good and bad at the same time and that was a very good feature of the movie.
- I liked the scenery. It was very well worked out, especially the walls of Troy and the city itself.


Conclusion: in my opinion, it could have been a great movie, as it had alot of good features in it to become one, but leaving out half the story is just not going to create an epic feeling, especially if the parts they cut are some of the most important features of the mythology itself. That makes me doubt the true intent of the maker's of the movie; maybe they just wanted to make it more simple and if that is their goal, then good job I say, but too bad for those who pay their money to see the Ilias (Story of Trojan War) on the white screen.

[Japic]

Although I do wholly agree witha few of your points, one would do well to remember that not all movies are based as closely upon the original scripts as most would like. It's pretty rare to find anyone that says the movie was better than the book.

As for as the exclusion of the gods' role in the story, I believe that it was done to bring the whole thing down to earth keeping it more 'realistic'. Movies nowadays seem fond of explaining away myths and mysticism with a more historical feel.

In closing I do feel that a decent portion of the story, some of the things that make it epic, have indeed been left out. However, the remaining story line and complex characters make it a good movie still.

Oh and for any of you that may have been wondering, Orlando Bloom (Paris) is still a wuss, as all of his roles are. Good casting.

[Merovingian]

I have to agree with Japic on this one. I believe the whole point of this movie was to try to show a more historical (and human) possibility of the story that lead to the legends we know and love. I think it was one of the better movies made recently, and if you listen to the messages of war that were spoken humanity probably has not changed all that much in three thousand years.

[VemuKhaham]

If that is indeed the case, then the maker's did a good job, besides some other negative things that still apply. Still, I went to the movie with 6 others all expecting to see an epic and mythologically based movie, so a warning would still be appropriate I think. And after having seen it, I would've still prefered what I expected, so hopefully some day a new movie will appear about Troy and the entire story, but untill that day, I will just have to wait...

[Cel]

The movie was awesome! Stop complaining. ;D