Rating of
3/4
The visuals and battle scenes carries this movie
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/08
"Troy" is the story of the Greeks' bloody attack on the city of which the movie is named after lead by "Achilles" (Brad Pitt) to bring back "Helen of Troy" (Diane Kruger) to her homeland of Sparta.
The movie is reminicent to the movies of the 1960's visually. The story is a bit weak and lags somewhat, as is some of the acting.
The visuals look amazing, but I watched the movie on a television. This is the kind of movie that must be seen on the silver screen. From what I could see, the director picked the most spectacular shots he could come up with. I was amazed by how the scenery, especially the battles, filled the screen all the way to the distance. There is however way too much tan and brown colors thanks to the buildings and sand that dominates the screen.
Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom have standout performances in "Troy". In fact, I didn't recognize either until I read the cast on Yahoo Movies. Veteran actor Peter O'Toole sadly had only one scene that he stole. Sadly, O'Toole didn't have a bigger role.
Another fine performance was by Pitt. His delivery of the lines could have been better though. Pitt truly stands out in the battle scenes, especially when he is one-on-one with an opponent.
None of the other actors truly stood out in this film. And most of their performances were not as good as a blockbuster movie should have to make it memorable.
A problem with the performances is that none of them are great enough for you to actually care for them. You don't have much sympathy for any who die, including Pitt at the end (sorry for the spoiler). If all involved tried harder, the performances would have stood out like the visuals.
If you want to see a spectacularly visual movie, then this will fit the bill. I do recommend you get the wide-screen format to truly appreciate the scenery. Just don't expect truly amazing performances that a cast such as this could do.
To sum it up, "Troy" is not the epic it was intended to be. All it is is a visually amazing movie with only fair performances that were almost, but not quite perfect.
