Troy
- Thread starter pax
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I enjoyed the film for the visuals and action sequences' choreography, but Pitt should've been cast as Helen. . .he's prettier than the actress they chose.
I guess different people have different taste. And that reviewers don't always represent the general public. I haven't seen the movie myself, but all reviews I've seen on this movie have been unanimous:
It's realy bad. Typical score: 1 (on a scale 1-5)
Doesn't necessarily mean that the movie actually is bad though.
It's realy bad. Typical score: 1 (on a scale 1-5)
Doesn't necessarily mean that the movie actually is bad though.
Well, the one of the reviewers said he found it to be a girls' film camoflaged as a macho-/epic battle-flick.
That atleast explains why my date liked it so much better than I did..
I even fell half asleep before the first battle before the walls of Troy, as the storytelling became to slow for my brain (seriously lacking sleep) to follw. And who would have thought that of a movie directed by the man behind Das Boot..?
Good entertainment, not interesting enough for me, I'm afraid..
Kjetil
That atleast explains why my date liked it so much better than I did..
I even fell half asleep before the first battle before the walls of Troy, as the storytelling became to slow for my brain (seriously lacking sleep) to follw. And who would have thought that of a movie directed by the man behind Das Boot..?
Good entertainment, not interesting enough for me, I'm afraid..
Kjetil
I thought it was really, really well done (aside from the 'interesting' interpretation of the Illiad heh). I think the take on making the movie about Achilles' 'journey/redemption' versus Helen and Paris was also a pretty good take on the story.
Not to mention, I don't think anyone, in any movie ever, has looked as badass as Brad Pitt with a sword before Russel Crow got owned!
Not to mention, I don't think anyone, in any movie ever, has looked as badass as Brad Pitt with a sword before
Russel Crow got owned! Anyone spot the actor who played Priam's high priest?
Hmmm,
1) Why was Achilles of all people the central character? Its all about Odysseus and his relationship to Athena (cunning over brute strength).
2) Did they background Paris was doomed because 3 Goddesses cornered him to truthfully pick the most beautiful of them, promising him if he did he would be given the most beautiful women as a wife? He told the truth (and gave the apple to Aphrodite) pissing off the two less pretty, but far more more powerfully goddesses; so they doomed Paris and Helen to meet and scamper, forefilling there promise but mightily pissing off the Spartans; which was not exactly calculated to extent your life expectancy in those days?
3) Bet Odysseus didn't first meet Achilles when he was dressed in women's clothes hiding as one of the girls in a ruler's harem! Odysseus was called to find who make a harem girl pregant. He suspected one of the the girls wasn't so he brought along a magnificant suit of armour. Of all the harem girls only Achilles was transfixed by the armour and Odysseus nabbed him and brought him along to Troy where Achilles completely distinguised himself in 23 of the first major battles.
4) Bet they glossed over Achilles was going to exit Troy, until his lover used his armour to get Hector to fight him. Hector was doomed to die at Troy if he fought Achilles. But Hector was incredibly brave and when he saw 'Achilles' he fought him and incredibly won! Only to learn the man he killed was not Achilles but his lover. Hector sealed his own doom. Achilles heard of his lovers death at Hector's hands and promptly came back and made total mincemeat of him.
5) WTF is a Greek Helen blonde? What lamebrain thought up that idea?
What I have heard of this film, versus the story, its an excuse for lots of shallow heoric battles with little depth that so incredibly enriched the original masterpiece. The enriching details where too controversial or out there so Hollywood sanitised them for mass appeal and simply left them out!
1) Why was Achilles of all people the central character? Its all about Odysseus and his relationship to Athena (cunning over brute strength).
2) Did they background Paris was doomed because 3 Goddesses cornered him to truthfully pick the most beautiful of them, promising him if he did he would be given the most beautiful women as a wife? He told the truth (and gave the apple to Aphrodite) pissing off the two less pretty, but far more more powerfully goddesses; so they doomed Paris and Helen to meet and scamper, forefilling there promise but mightily pissing off the Spartans; which was not exactly calculated to extent your life expectancy in those days?
3) Bet Odysseus didn't first meet Achilles when he was dressed in women's clothes hiding as one of the girls in a ruler's harem! Odysseus was called to find who make a harem girl pregant. He suspected one of the the girls wasn't so he brought along a magnificant suit of armour. Of all the harem girls only Achilles was transfixed by the armour and Odysseus nabbed him and brought him along to Troy where Achilles completely distinguised himself in 23 of the first major battles.
4) Bet they glossed over Achilles was going to exit Troy, until his lover used his armour to get Hector to fight him. Hector was doomed to die at Troy if he fought Achilles. But Hector was incredibly brave and when he saw 'Achilles' he fought him and incredibly won! Only to learn the man he killed was not Achilles but his lover. Hector sealed his own doom. Achilles heard of his lovers death at Hector's hands and promptly came back and made total mincemeat of him.
5) WTF is a Greek Helen blonde? What lamebrain thought up that idea?
What I have heard of this film, versus the story, its an excuse for lots of shallow heoric battles with little depth that so incredibly enriched the original masterpiece. The enriching details where too controversial or out there so Hollywood sanitised them for mass appeal and simply left them out!
pax said:
Did you recognize him or did you look it up?
It was the voice the 2nd time I heard it that helped me make the connection, but I'm extremely good with faces. For example, I spotted Ron Perleman behind all that makeup in the last Trek movie even though I had no idea he was in the film.The movie is OK. Not great but OK. Solid entertainment. I didn't walk out of the movie theater feeling ripped off and I didn't fall asleep during the movie - both of which has happened far too frequently in the past couple of years.
It's one of those movies that could have been great but somehow dropped the ball halfway. For an epic it felt surprisingly unepic. The pacing didn't feel quite right and it didn't really involve me emotionally. It lacked immersion. I always felt like an observer, Troy never really managed to draw me in. Gladiator did a much better job at this.
I would have loved to see some post-Homeric stories integrated into the script, especially the Iphigenia story. I really missed that one. They could have also cut some of the romantic fluff that just went nowhere and replaced it with the Penthesilea story for some romance.
Something that bugged me is why the hell do script writers always feel compelled to change perfectly good stories - and the Illiad is as perfectly good as it gets, especially when enriched with some elements from later writers like Aeschylus.
I can understand that some corners have to be cut to make a written epic movie compatible but why change the plot? Hector killed neither Ajax nor Menelaus and Briseis killing Agamemnon is just plain stupid. Ayschylus' take on Clytemnestra combined with the Iphingenia story and some voice-over epilogue giving a rough overview of the aftermath of the Trojan War would be been much more satisfying.
Also, the movie made it appear like the Trojan War took maybe a fortnight instead of 10 years - why?
Anyway, Troy is a pretty enjoyable movie that could have been so much better. Maybe including the involvement of the Greek gods in the whole Trojan War mess could have given the movie a bit more of an epic feel.
It's one of those movies that could have been great but somehow dropped the ball halfway. For an epic it felt surprisingly unepic. The pacing didn't feel quite right and it didn't really involve me emotionally. It lacked immersion. I always felt like an observer, Troy never really managed to draw me in. Gladiator did a much better job at this.
I would have loved to see some post-Homeric stories integrated into the script, especially the Iphigenia story. I really missed that one. They could have also cut some of the romantic fluff that just went nowhere and replaced it with the Penthesilea story for some romance.
Something that bugged me is why the hell do script writers always feel compelled to change perfectly good stories - and the Illiad is as perfectly good as it gets, especially when enriched with some elements from later writers like Aeschylus.
I can understand that some corners have to be cut to make a written epic movie compatible but why change the plot? Hector killed neither Ajax nor Menelaus and Briseis killing Agamemnon is just plain stupid. Ayschylus' take on Clytemnestra combined with the Iphingenia story and some voice-over epilogue giving a rough overview of the aftermath of the Trojan War would be been much more satisfying.
Also, the movie made it appear like the Trojan War took maybe a fortnight instead of 10 years - why?
Anyway, Troy is a pretty enjoyable movie that could have been so much better. Maybe including the involvement of the Greek gods in the whole Trojan War mess could have given the movie a bit more of an epic feel.
g__day said:
There's a long, ugly history of westerners claiming against all evidence that the ancient Hellenes were Nordics, and that by implication modern Greeks are of some other origin. Some did this to buttress racialist "Ayran" philosophies, others did it to justify Ottoman rule of the Balkans/Asia Minor, others did it out of spite towards the "wogs."
