Best Post-Gladiator Epic?

[nikolai]

There has been a spate of Epic out since Gladiator: Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, King Arthur, Alexander, The Last Samurai, etc. Which do you think work?

 

[Viking Bastard]

They all suck. At least the ones you mentioned.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Of that group, Troy is the only one I actually liked. So, obviously its an easy choice. Its kind of sad, though, as those movies all had great potential and just tried to be too much like Gladiator.

For me, Gladiator wasn't great because it was an Epic. It was great because of Russell Crowe.

 

[Melkor Lord Of ALL!]

I liked Troy and Last Samurai. I didn't see Kingdom of Heaven.

 

[Orius]

Troy I liked, and I despise Brad Pitt. Still, he worked well as Achilles. The movie may have butchered a lot of Homer's details, but the basic story was still there. And they did a great job with Hector as well.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I liked the Last Samurai, even if it did portray the Samurai as noble defenders of the people instead of the elitist bullies that they were in real life.

Troy was also entertaining. Not a classic, but not bad either.

Kingdom of Heaven was only so-so. The battle scenes at the end were awesome, but I was annoyed by the movie's obvious pro-Islam, anti-Christian bias. Not to mention that I can't stand Orlando Bloom.

King Arthur was bad. I'm far from being a movie snob, but even I had trouble finding things to like about this one.

I haven't seen Alexander, but from what I've heard from people who have seen it, I'm only missing a long, boring, bisexual angst-fest that's occasionally broken up by battle scenes. I've also read reports of the film breaking in theaters where Alexander was playing, and the audiance applauding.

Given the choices presented, I'd pick the Last Samurai as the best post-Gladiator epic.

 

[Dr. Talos]

I would have to say Last Samurai and Kingdom of Heaven were both acceptable, the rest were found wanting (reminding me, A Knight's Tale was better than all of those mentioned)

Samurai was watchable, which sadly these days is what I have to expect of movies coming out.

Kingdom of Heaven, though having faults, had some very good performances on the acting front and suffered greatly from having too much cut out to make it shorter.

Alibi: I am not including LoTR in this list even though it is Epic. It suffers from the condition of being a darn good classic

 

[Aeson]

I'm curious. Would you guys have liked King Arthur if it had a different name?

 

[Viking Bastard]

Maybe a tad.

But not a lot.

 

[Villano]

The only film on the list that I saw was Troy. I thought it was pretty good. It did drag in spots, though. A reviewer described it as a throwback to the old "sword & sandal" films and I think that's a pretty good desciption.

I know some people dislike it for trying to present a "real" version of the events without Gods and magic. Even though I enjoyed this approach to the film, removing the mythological aspects hurt it in some regards. For example, the Trojan Horse ends up seeming a bit silly.