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<blockquote data-quote="jasamcarl" data-source="post: 1544498" data-attributes="member: 1251">I'm usually not squeemish on giving my oponion about anything, but with this movie I can't really seperate any criticism I have on the merits from its departures with the Iliad. I'll just make a few broad points:This is more or less a standard modern epic, which means that it is the pretty much exactly like the 'Swords and Sandals' movies of Hollywood's heyday with a bigger budged, longer battles, and more 'witty' one liners. Included in this is the contrived inclusion of a female love interest; I have my theories for why this is the case that go deeper than demo pandering, but i digress.It was on the whole very well directed, though the battle scenes were pretty damn impersonal. My attention drifted often. Everything was a bit too rational and 'neat'.I'm not going to bother to rate it for the reason stated above, but if I had to characterize it 'bland' comes to mind. Like all 'period' pieces (including the Iliad itself) it reflected our time more than it did that of the than that of the source material ; the post-9/11 analogues were difficult to miss. The one point of comparison I will make between the Iliad and Troy is that, as an objective preference, I preferred the more subtle character development of Homer over the 'whiny', outwardly articulated self discovery of 'Troy'; I was never immersed in either another world or other characters. It wore its Hollywood revisionism to easily i suppose.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jasamcarl, post: 1544498, member: 1251"] I'm usually not squeemish on giving my oponion about anything, but with this movie I can't really seperate any criticism I have on the merits from its departures with the Iliad. I'll just make a few broad points: This is more or less a standard modern epic, which means that it is the pretty much exactly like the 'Swords and Sandals' movies of Hollywood's heyday with a bigger budged, longer battles, and more 'witty' one liners. Included in this is the contrived inclusion of a female love interest; I have my theories for why this is the case that go deeper than demo pandering, but i digress. It was on the whole very well directed, though the battle scenes were pretty damn impersonal. My attention drifted often. Everything was a bit too rational and 'neat'. I'm not going to bother to rate it for the reason stated above, but if I had to characterize it 'bland' comes to mind. Like all 'period' pieces (including the Iliad itself) it reflected our time more than it did that of the than that of the source material ; the post-9/11 analogues were difficult to miss. The one point of comparison I will make between the Iliad and Troy is that, as an objective preference, I preferred the more subtle character development of Homer over the 'whiny', outwardly articulated self discovery of 'Troy'; I was never immersed in either another world or other characters. It wore its Hollywood revisionism to easily i suppose. [/QUOTE]

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