Rate Troy

[shilsen]

Just one question for anyone who saw it (you might spoiler the answer if you want): is the Laocoon section in there? I dunno why, I really wanna see those serpents... umm... that didn't sound two good.

Nope. I thought about exactly the same thing as soon as the Horse showed up. In fact, I don't think Laocoon shows up at all. There is a priest figure dealing with prophecies, but I think that is Antenor (can't recall the character being named in the movie).

I just got back from it and I quite enjoyed the movie. Some random observations:

* Most people know this already, but DO NOT go to the theater expecting an adaptation of the Iliad or even the Troy myth cycle. As the credits say, the movie is "Inspired by Homer's Iliad."

* The above being said, most of the changes work well as far as the movie as a movie is concerned. The fates of Agamemnon, Menalaus and Ajax, for example, work fine in the context of the movie, even though they depart totally from the myths. In fact, I would argue that there are some places where the movie was handicapped by trying to stick with the source material (the whole sequence of Achilles being slain by Paris, for example) and would have been better off just continuing with the changes already made.

* The movie is often surprisingly true to the spirit of the myths (not just the Iliad), even when rewriting the letter. The character of Hector, Achilles' pursuit of timeless glory at the expense of a life of peace (and his awareness of himself as doomed), the Greek vs. Troy clash as a western vs. eastern issue (which gets slightly ham-handed with sculptures of Apollo and the other gods being represented in Assyrian/Mesopotamian form), the Hector-Andromache relationship and their awareness of the evil of war, etc. are all nicely handled.

* Two issues which seemed more than a little anachronistic were the focus on the meaninglessness of the gods and the anti-monarchy angle.

* Aeneas. Hah!

* One place where Homer beats Wolfgang Petersen is in the closing. "Troy" gets a little weak in the last 15 minutes and I can't help wondering if it would have been better to take the Iliad route. Or make more substantial changes than were done to the ending.

Overall, a good and enjoyable movie. I give it two thumbs up!

 

[Abraxas]

Just saw it earlier today.
Another solid 5 movie - nothing special. The mass combat scenes were atrocious, and other scenes were just . . . off

Spoiler

the spear throw from the temple steps was particularly bad

. All I'm gonna say - Blood Spray :\. Mostly unimpressed with Brad Pitt. However, Bana and O'toole were excellent - so I enjoyed the last 3rd of the movie much more than the 1st 2/3rds.

Saw it with one of my gaming crew - we both decided that Achilles is NE

 

[Thanee]

Achilles is so CN.

Agamemnon is NE, tho, as his brother Menelaus (maybe LE).

Odysseus is probably LG (or NG), as is Hector (very much LG) and Priamos.

Helena is NG and Paris CG.



Bye
Thanee

 

[Assenpfeffer]

...which gets slightly ham-handed with sculptures of Apollo and the other gods being represented in Assyrian/Mesopotamian form

I rather liked that. From a production design standpoint, it was important to make the Trojan stuff distinct from the Greek stuff. While its authenticity is doubtful, I felt it worked very well visually.

Aeneas. Hah!

That made my hair stand up. Very clever.

I also thought:

Spoiler

the death of Achilles was done very cleverly. Paris puts about 4 arrows in him, but when the Greek soldiers find him dead he's pulled out all of then... except the one in his heel.

I thought that was pretty cool.

I gave the movie an 8. The dialogue is sometimes hammy, but I thought it was quite enjoyable overall. And the fight scenes, both the individual matches and the big battles, are very well-done.

I liked the way Achilles moved. I don't know if it was beacuse Brad Pitt got all buffed-out and in-shape for the part, or if it was done with camera tricks, but he has a very unusual dangerous grace about him, similiar to but distinct from that of a modern martial artist.

 

[Goodsport]

I haven't seen this film yet (and thus skipped over most of the spoiler bits), but I'm not surprised that this film has gotten good reviews both here and in most newspapers.

I'm a big fan of Wolfgang Petersen's films, with Air Force One being his only film of late that was less-than-great (it was competent enough yet somewhat awkward, though Harrison Ford did make a pretty cool President ).

So I'm definitely looking forward to this one.


-G

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I realy did not like it. I was on the verge of falling asleep many times during the movie. i would have rather seen VanHelsing again than this movie.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I just got back from the movie, and I loved it! Probably the best movie I've seen so far this year.

I loved the characters of Hector, Ajax, Achilles, and Odysseus. I also thought Hector's wife was a very nicely-done character.

I hated Paris, though. I just plain found it impossible to like the prissy little fop. If he were a character in Braveheart, he would have been thrown out the castle window by Longshanks. The fact that he realized "Hey, I'm Legolas!" towards the end of the movie and picked up a bow still didn't make me like him any more.

Still, great movie. I gave it a 9 out of 10.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

GREAT movie. I loved that they made Achilles 'immortality' just the fact that no one could seem to hit him...EVER. The whole flip-shield-on-back-and-catch-arrow-with-it just rocked.

As for the characters...

Achilles: Thought he was an arrogant jerk in the book itself, and thought the same of him in the movie. That means he was great.

Hector: Loved him in the book...same in the movie. Best character, IMO.

Paris: Hated him in the book...thought he was a whiny coward in the movie. Again, GOOD.

And the list goes on...Ajax was great too.

Spoiler

Break the spear and BEAT them with it!

 

[shilsen]

I rather liked that. From a production design standpoint, it was important to make the Trojan stuff distinct from the Greek stuff. While its authenticity is doubtful, I felt it worked very well visually.

I just thought it was a little - as I mentioned before - ham-handed, or to be more precise, unsubtle, but I do agree that it worked for the movie. I preferred the way the Trojan armor and dress had slight Byzantine touches to separate it from the Greeks.

I loved the characters of Hector, Ajax, Achilles, and Odysseus. I also thought Hector's wife was a very nicely-done character.

The Achilles-Odysseus friendship (runs completely counter to the book) was an interesting choice to make, since Odysseus is very much the new breed of hero, who stands apart from those like Achilles, who perfectly embodies the older, more simplistic and brutal, warrior code. But it worked fine for the movie. And Andromache (Hector's wife) was quite well-done by Saffron Burroughs, who I have only seen elsewhere in "Deep Blue Sea" (eyeballs bleed at the remembrance ).

I hated Paris, though. I just plain found it impossible to like the prissy little fop. If he were a character in Braveheart, he would have been thrown out the castle window by Longshanks. The fact that he realized "Hey, I'm Legolas!" towards the end of the movie and picked up a bow still didn't make me like him any more.

As Ankh-Morpork Guard said, this is totally in keeping with the Iliad. When the duel with Menelaus began I was wondering if Orlando Bloom would suddenly turn into Legolas (and also how they'd handle the absence of Aphrodite), and I thought it was handled very nicely.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Absolutely terrible. I've never wanted to walk out of a movie so badly before, and I would have if not for the fact that I drove my friends and I there.

The good about it is rather slim... the acting was decent, cinematography was good. Action was okay, but really nothing special nor groundbreaking. The sole exception to this was the Hector/Achilles fight, which was the best part of the movie, and highly enjoyable. Otherwise it was pretty ho-hum.

The script... oh dear god, the script. Now, I did not expect it to be any more than based on The Iliad, which is one of my favorite myths. In fact, I'd say my expectations were downright rock bottom, because of my love for the source material. Even that didn't help this steaming pile of turd.

First off... the dialogue was terrible. Not only did it sound completely rediculous, but so very obviously only existed to fill the gap between action scenes. I give credit to the actors for doing the best they could with it, but you can't make crap anything more than crap. My impression (and presumably that of much of the audience, who were laughing throughout the film) was that it was written by a high-school student.

Secondly, the pacing is absolutely horrible. For the middle hour and a half or so, I was completely bored out of my skull, and no amount of action helped any... the sole exception again being the Hector/Achilles fight. By the time the big ending sequence came along, I was on the edge of my seat... waiting for the movie to be over. I didn't particularly care what happened by the time the action started to pick up again... hell, the Trojans could have won, I wouldn't have cared. I was simply bored. 162 minutes was way too long for this film. It's called editing, and people need to learn how to use it.

Third, the music. There is such a thing as overusing a particular style of music, and this was it. That whole crooning-soprano thing just got old, fast.

In the end, this film was nothing but an attempt to cash in on the success of Lord of the Rings, with a bit of Braveheart thrown in there. Unfortunately, unlike LotR and Braveheart, Troy had a script that I wouldn't use for toilet-paper.