Forum: 

Troy - warning, spoiler.

Valerian's picture

*Finally* we watched this movie.  We were meaning to catch it at the cinema, but procrastination won out.  Amazing really, since I am such an "epic battle" movie freak.

Anyway, the action was great, and some of the effects were quite well done, but I for one had a lot of problems with it.  Aside from the fact that they all looked so.. so... [i]moussed[/i].  Anyone here ever actually read [u]The Iliad?[/u]?   If so I'm sure you'll agree.

Pluses:

* lots of killing and gore.  [u]The Iliad[/u] was crammed with it, pages upon pages of who gets killed by whom and with what, all with nauseating detail.  Bravo!

* taking Hector out for a drag.  Personally I though tthey were going to skip this bit, but to my surprise they didn't.

* the Trojan Horse looked very realistic.  But realistic in the sense that it was built of wood from their half-burnt ships.  This was not a gold-laden, beautifully painted work of art.  It was kind of slapped together with what resources they could afford to spare.  Convincing. 

* they were all very young men.  Teenagers even.  That's because the soldiers would have been.  Average life expectancy?  About 35.  Age a boy was considered a man and capable of heading a family?  16.

Minuses:

* they should have cut back on the hair products.  Too clean.

* a 10 year battle was made to look like it took place over a few days.  Lame.

* not nearly enough introduction to what an asshole Agamemnon was.  Although I guess we figure it out soon enough.   Same goes for the love interest between Paris & Helen.  It's just thrown at us very quickly, and we're expected to buy it.

* um, where the hell was Cassandra (the woman  in [u]The Iliad[/u] who foretold of disaster, yet the Trojans would not believe her)?  And who the hell was that fabricated love interest of Achilles'?

* speaking of Achilles and love interests, Patroclus wasn't actually his "cousin", you know.  But then, having Achilles go ballistic over the death of his boy-toy wouldn't be very macho now would it?

* no explanation of who Achilles' mother was.  Um, like, the goddess Thetis, perhaps?  The very goddess who gave him his invincibility???  Funny there is no mention of that.  Kind of important, I'd think, given the whole death-by-ankle thing.

I think it was actually rather well done, if you compare it to "Alexander". But yeah, this little romance between Achilles and that girl.... that was typical Hollywood style. To mix in romance and sex to make the movie more 'exciting'  ::) to the people who are bored by the actual story.

I'm with you on the minuses.

I think that they excised so much of the Illiad from the film that it almost spoiled it for me.

That, and a few minor niggly details in the script.  Oh, well.