[teardropmina]

just saw it this afternoon.
some disclaimer: imo, Troy is a very interesting movie and have some great points. I'll only talk about the bad things I've seen. that is, I do not hate the movie completely, but there are some disturbing things [img]tongue.gif[/img]

It's actually one of the worse movie viewing experience I had recently (NOT that it's a very bad movie; Van Helsing is worse in a sense but gave me a more enjoyable viewing experience). IF they'd gotten rid of all the Paris/Helen scenes, I would've enjoyed this movie much, much more. The characters of Achilles and Hector are well depicted and actually well acted out (great job! Brad and Eric)...however, for me, Paris and Helen are two of the most despicable movie characters in recent memory (Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger's "wooden" acting make them even worse). This 21st century update of the Troy story of course is metaphorical, but in the context of the narrative, the so-called *love* of Paris/Helen is so superficial (no different from the *love* in any standard romance or romantic comedy out there), and they are just two naive and spoiled kids who happen to have the luxury that thousands of men will die for their *love.* The metaphor is obvious: the naive, spoiled Prince Paris is woken and grew up by the sacrifice of the saint Hector...yet, we don't really get to see HOW exactly he'll honor his brother's death...by shooting arrows at Achilles in the dark???? This movie needs probably another hour of running time to make Paris a rounded character and therefore could be less despicable.
moreover, even it's just a metaphor, the underlying ideology is very disturbing to me (which to me is a bigger problem than the one mentioned in the Raising Helen thread in terms of American cinema) == all those corpses...they are necessary causalities to show the importance and greatness of hero and heroines. Achilles and Hector, great heroes, but not just them, those corpses are also for Paris and Helen == WTF exactly are they? Paris just happen to be the Prince of Troy and hence all the corpses? Can any peasant young lad and an abused lonely pesant wife get this kind of "luck"? So, all the corpses for not just people who have extraordinary abilities or morale, but also those who are simply in the higher level of social hierarchy?
Troy is not a line-to-line movie translation of greek classic, it's a 21st century update and revision (or inspired by the classic whatever you want to call it), I thought it'd have more critical insights to the old moral story. Or maybe it does have the current American perspective in it == collective is always ready to sacrifice for *extraordinary* individuals.