Troy

I just saw this film a few hours ago, and I thought it was a good action flick. I did think Ripley Scott had a slightly better picture with GLADIATOR, but TROY had its flaws, as both did. I understand that both are two completely different pieces, but what's better, the eye-pleasing story of a gladiator, or the film based on the ILLIAD, by Homer? I thought Troy was at times over the top, so was GLADIATOR, but Wolgang Peterson's approach was really different than Ripley's. It's all about perspective, duh, but I'm still confused... :.(

How can you blame them? The flaming arrows provided a great visual effect in GLADIATOR.

I hope they bring back exploding arrows, Army of Darkness style!
HAIL TO THE KING!
:)

Is it just me... or does it seem like the use of flaming arrows has become a trend ever since Gladiator?

So what did you think of the Hector vs Achilles fight Tim? Supposedly they worked months on that fight. If they did, It shows. I thought it was funny, on Oprah Eric and Brad mentioned they made a pact, that everytime someone slipped and accidently hit the other person they would pay them like 25 or 50 dollars I believe, Pitt ended up paying Bana 500+ I think?

This summer seems pretty relentless. Each week something else is stealing someone elses thunder. I wonder how much of an impact Shrek2 will have on Troy's 2nd weekend.

I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a good film, even after all the hype. I actually walked out of the theatre feeling satisfied. I thought the pacing was very smooth. It slows down where it needs to, but never for too long. Plenty of epic size action, and yes, the handheld camera does seem a bit annoying; nevertheless, the action scenes do have some fine moments of their own. I love the scene where O’toole sneaks into Pitts tent. It was such a powerful scene of courage and bravery towards enemies.

The only thing I found laughable, and I don’t know if any of you caught this, but don’t you all think they sure built those tents pretty fast for landing on the beach the first day? Hell, I’ve built two bedroom shacks for poor families in Mexico over a weekend with a group of 20 people. I just found it funny that the Greeks take over the beach in a bloody battle, then the next scene is Achilles inside the king’s tent, which is all decked out in true royal fashion. I don’t know about you guys, but I can assure you, it takes a little more than a few hours to accomplish what was seen. I also used to breakdown circus tents and carnival events when I was a young lad; trust me, it takes all day and all night to do.

The other laughable scene was when Achilles cousin was killed. Wow, the Greeks sure built that giant pile of sand, and structured a burial scaffolding awful fast, no? Well, leave it to me, a critic, to pick the whole thing apart. No harm intended, though. I really enjoyed the film as a whole. Compared to “Gladiator” I think I like “Troy” a little bit more. The pacing was much better, the acting was acceptable even though it was not great, and it felt redeeming even though it truly is a tragic story. Overall, I thought it was very well done and an easily enjoyable summer fare. If you end up paying full price to see it, you won’t be disappointed. I think it has been getting a bad rap, after reading some reviews out there, but I’m telling you all as your friend at DVD town, IT’S NOT THAT BAD!!! It’s a good movie and I guarantee you will probably enjoy it as much as I. It’s just simple summer fare, so enjoy. :D

I thought the fight was very well played out. It went over better than Hector's whimpy brother and his fight, even though Hector meets his doom.

I have a feeling that Shrek 2 will do plenty of damage to Troy. Fact is, it will draw a larger audience because of the family theme it has. Troy is really geared at older adults to younger adults, where as Shrek has the audience of children to adults of all ages. If I was to wager any money on it, I'd bet Shrek 2 will end up number 1 next weekend.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

The main problem was being insightful enough to non readers of the books but at the same time not boring the people who had read them. This lead to a lot of pacing problems. The story never really flowed for me, it felt like a constant studder of intense action and then slamming into a brick wall of dialogue.

I thought Diane Kruger as Helen was a poor choice. Acting was decent, but she just looked like a typical blonde to me. If I'm going to begin a war over THEE Helen of Troy she should be phenomenal to look at as that is how the rumors about her beauty are told.

The princes of Troy played by Bloom and Bana did fine jobs. Orlando really didn't have much to do here but look pretty. He portrayed the feeble, spoiled, sheltered younger brother pretty boy well though. Eric on the other hand I thought did a fantastic job as Hector. Noble, mature, loyal, a father, battlefield smart, he portrayed all of these characteristiscs very well. IMO he created the only relationship (with his wife) in the movie that you could actually care for.

Peter O'toole and Brian Cox also did marvelous jobs. Much like Phoenix in Gladiator you love to hate him as he played Agamemnon. The power hungry war mongerer. Good stuff. O'toole probably had the best performance. He put nothing but emotion into his speeches. Orlando should consider himself lucky to have worked along the sides of O'Toole and McKellen, some of Britian's finest.

Then we have Odysseus played by Sean Bean. The light hearted yet wise cousin of Achilles. Great actor great performance. He is probably the only source for any comical relief. He doesn't have much screen time but he is fun to watch when he is there.

The action... it may not have packed the emotional ride as Braveheart but it was very entertaining. Brad Pitt's presence is one to be felt. Many thought he did awful in this movie as far as acting, but as far as playing a more wooden character I thought he did fine job. Thats not to say that the dialogue written for him wasn't a little hokey at times but when he is busy ending lives you are there watching. I do however wish Ajax had more ass kicking than what he was given.

I disliked the choice of taking out the gods from the story, giving them only a passing nod. There were several choices that bugged me about the way they did it, too, by having characters like Paris and Hector actively talk out against the religious ways. While it may have been more historically accurate, it really detracted from the mythic nature of the story, one of the reasons I loved the story so much. There was no reason for people to follow Achilles or for him to be so good and undefeatable. But there were other little changes in the story that bothered me as well, but none so much as the removal of the Greek Gods, one of my favorite historical periods.

There were other problems with this film, and they rest solely on the shoulders of the director. Poor, jumpy editing and shakey camera movements were distracting, and the forced "epic" closeups, sweeping camera moves, and slow motions were almost laughable. It's like it was a movie composed of trailer cuts.

I respect the filmmakers for deciding to take out the gods (to make it a "historical" movie instead of a myth). However, doing so changes Homer's story in a key way. In Homer's "The Iliad", Hector is the true hero of the story. Achilles is a demi-god who has the support of Zeus and Athena. Hector knows going into his duel with Achilles that he will lose if he fights Achilles one-on-one. Still, he decides to fight Achilles because he feels that he's dying for an entire culture's (Troy's) worth of values.

Meanwhile, Achilles has an awful personality, which means that he really doesn't have any friends. He was also in a homosexual relationship, which was considered to be a bad thing back in the day.

This is kinda like the Superman vs. Batman debate. Batman's fans say that he's cooler because he goes into battle knowing that he might die. Superman's fans like him because he's just oh-so-strong. But, really, where's the courage when you know that you probably won't be beaten on any given day? LOL.

Globally Troy raked in 100 million this weekend alone.

"Additionally, Troy invaded over 9,000 screens in 47 territories overseas and raked in an estimated $54.8 million -- No. 1 everywhere -- bringing its estimated global weekend to $100.4 million. As one would expect, it broke the opening weekend record in Greece and was second best ever in Turkey (where Troy once stood). Top tallies came from Germany ($8.1 million), France ($6.3 million), Spain ($6.2 million) and Australia ($4.6 million). According to Warner Bros., Troy eclipsed the debuts of The Last Samurai, Gladiator and Van Helsing in all like markets. Next weekend, Troy enters Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Russia and Korea."