:: theMediaman journal ::

:: Monday, May 17, 2004 ::

Simone and I saw the movie, Troy, this weekend.

*WARNING* Mild spoilers ahead. Don't read today's entry if you haven't seen the movie. Well, there's nothing new in here if you already know Homer's "The Iliad"

Pretty decent film until you realize what it's trying to accomplish. It had a lot of the feeling of an Epic Film. This included the set design, hordes of extras (many of whom were CG... I'll come back to that), and even Peter O'Toole.

Unfortunately there were some key failures that were impossible to ignore. The first part of the film is about the romance between Paris and Helen... two characters you really don't get a chance to give two hoots about. After that, it's about Achilles and whazzername, and finally Hector and the other wazzername. Very little time is spent on true character development except where Brad Pitt's Achilles is concerned... but we flip-flop between liking and disliking him so much that his character becomes uninteresting too.

There was also a LOT of take-the-easy-way-out filming, using technology developed for Lord of the Rings to make the hordes of 50,000 soldiers. It would have been far more impressive if we hadn't all seen it a dozen times before over the last three years. Computer generated soldiers is no longer 'cool' now that they've got them in everything from The Alamo to Cold Mountain.

Finally, after all the uninteresting romances going on through the story, it just became a war movie a la Braveheart. Wolfgang Peterson wanted to leave the Gods out of the film because "they were silly". While it probably would have made an otherwise standard war movie more interesting, I don't think I could have handled more people in this story. Peter O'Toole's Priam, King of Troy was the only character I actually cared about consistantly throughout the film. Most of the other characters I gave two licks about were out of pity.

I loved it as an action movie, but there was simply not enough character development to make this a lasting film. The acting was quite good, and the scripting was better than I might have expected. The special effects were superb, but if they were clearly going for an "Epic Film" feel, then they missed the mark by substituting CG warriors for extras.

For a film that pushes three hours, it simply wasn't long enough for the subject matter. Something that was no fault of the filmmakers was that the theatre seemed to have the A/C on full blast. It's really difficult to feel the burning heat of Troy's beaches when you're shivering.

:: Stephen 12:41 PM [+] ::

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