Some battles were fought for glory, some for honour, some for land, but Wolfgang Peterson's Troy was fought for love. Set 3200 years ago Troy tells the story of 2 nations, Greece and Troy who have been on the brink of war for many years. A everlasting peace agreement was made between the Trojans and the Spartans, but that was quickly violated the moment Paris (Orlando Bloom) a Prince of Troy swept Queen of Sparta Helen (Diane Kruger) away back with him to Troy.Eric Bana (Hector) says enough fighting for a day.
Ok that was a brief overview of the film, so here is the criticism. I will start with what was bad about this film.
Brad Pitt as Achilles became increasingly annoying throughout the film for many reasons. He is too well known for playing such a figure as Achilles so whenever he was on the screen i almost kept affiliating him with other films like Fight Club and Oceans 11. I feel that role should of been portrayed by an unknown. His character was made to be a stand out performance like that of Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator' , or Charlton Heston in 'Ben Hur' , but failed miserably. I give him credit for his attempt though.
I can probably think of many more faults this movie has, but I won't bother, let's movie on to what i thought was good about this film, and I did think it was a good sleek film.
Priam (Peter O'Toole) consults Achilles (Brad Pitt)
I have to give some good acting credits out to a few member of the cast including Eric Bana as Hector who was one of the only characters that I actually wanted to live to the end of it. He portrayed the patriotic, determined, and caring hero Hector brilliantly.Lawrence of Arabia . He plays the King of Troy, Priam a sometimes over confident king, but also a loving and caring father to his two sons Paris and Hector. The actor driven scene in the film that really stuck in my head was when a emotionally drained Priam (Peter O' Toole) enters Achilles camp and pleads for his sons body to be returned so he can be given a proper funeral. My favourite line from that scene was when Achilles says 'Your still my enemy in the Morning' , and Priam replies, 'Your still my enemy tonight, but even enemies can show respect' . Troy is epic in scale, and in it performances but it is not an epic that will be remembered long from now. Troy is a very good film dont get me wrong, but it could of been better. It has the massive battles, it has emotional power, but what it lacks is brains.Troy is pure movie eye-candy. Some of its one liners will stick in my head because of there stupidity though. Check Troy out on dvd if you haven’t seen it yet, good solid entertainment.
DVD Extras
From the Documentry 'Troy: An Effects Odyssey'
You would have thought a blockbuster film like Troy would showcase a wealth of special features, but this DVD certainly does not. In total the length of all the special features combined is just over an hour. It includes 3 short featurette documentaries about the making of Troy , 3D animated and interactive gallery about the Gods, the theatrical trailer, and 1 comedy Easter egg. Here is a short description of each added feature.'Troy: An Effects Odyssey' is an interesting short documentary about the special effects and sound effects of Troy.'From Ruins to Reality' is a featurette about how they brought the city of Troy to life, and what research went into making it as accurate as possible.'In the Thick of Battle' is about how they choreographed all the fight sequences, and what techniques they used to make it look as good as possible.'Gallery of the Gods' is a 3D interactive gallery of the Gods of Troy and the Greeks. It features 12 different gods that were said to have shaped the the destiny's of men and determine the fate of Troy.'Theatrical Trailer' the second of the three trailers released for Troy .Lord of the Rings' films did with the extended editions, and 'The Passion of the Christ' and 'Kill Bill' DVD's are going to do.
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