Troy! (will contain spoilers)

[Pangur Ban]

Saw Troy yesterday. Didn't think much of it. So much potential in an epic story wasted.

Most of the audience were laughing or sniggering during the "dramatic" scenes. Overhead the comment on the way out of the theatre -- "The acting was as wooden as the horse"

Personally, I really wish they hadn't used the yellow filter for most of the daylight scenes.

My partner said that Troy's *only* redeeming qualitys was Eric Bana's beefcake. Mind you, she wants to go and see "Raising Helen" next week, so that sorta casts doubt on her ability to review movies ..

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by Pangur Ban: Most of the audience were laughing or sniggering during the "dramatic" scenes. Overhead the comment on the way out of the theatre -- "The acting was as wooden as the horse"

[img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[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.

[Link]

In defense of the movie; if the war is worth all of it is discussed multiple times by the characters. Hector wants to bring Helena back, but knows Agamemnon will just attack Troy anyhow: he is a bloodthirsty ruler seeking a reason to attack Troy for a long time now. And there are more conversations, but I've only viewed the movie once, so I can't really remember where. The kidnapping of Helena (if you can call it a kidnapping, indeed) is just the drop the flooded the waterbucket.

[teardropmina]

Link, your *defence* of the film isn't really in conflict with my criticism since I can see all those complications about the Troy war...my point was that that*drop the flooded the waterbucket* as you put it, however, is extensively, senitmentally presented in the film in the name of LOVE. I appreciate the almost dialectic approach to war and heroism that the filmmakers take, but the weakest link of all its glory to me is the Paris/Helen subplot.
btw, it's more complicated than just Hector wants to send Helen back but knows Agamemnon will just attack; there're the subtexts of his love for his own brother (when he may be in the position make the decision he didn't), and later it's his loyalty to his father (even he wants to send her back, he couldn't for it's his father's call). One of the key sequences is that immediately after Hector and Paris came back to Troy, Hector SUGGESTED his father to send Helen back, but Priam REJECTED the idea since he's so confident that Troy cannot be taken by any mortal force. That is, whatever Hector reckon Agamemnon would do is all aftermath after Priam made the decision not to send Helen back.
anyway, to me, this film does a brilliant job illustrating the interrelatedness of "selfish - small" love and "selfless-big" love, but the most distinguishing small love (= Paris/Helen) is simply too weak and superficial.

[Kaltia]

I got all worked up because they cut out the Patroclus/Achilles love. I mean, damnit, just because it's a film for girls doesn't mean you have to get rid of TEH GAY MEN!!111.

[Dreamer128]

Originally posted by The Hierophant: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Lady Blue03: <font color=pink>Plus, I didn't go because I care about historcal accuracy. If I wanted that I'd find something on the History channel [img]tongue.gif[/img] I went because of the action and because Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom look damn fine! Orlando Bloom even busted out his bow and went all Legolas style at the end </font>

Well, that certainly restores my faith in the latest generation of Americans... </font>[/QUOTE]Heh.. I was expecting the Troyans to charge forward shouting "Freedom, Freedom!". The fact that they didn't indicates there might still be some hope for Hollywood On another note, I always wondered how they kept an army of 50000 supplied for a period of ten years. Surely pillaging the countryside won't provide enough supplies for a force that size. I also found it a bit dissapointing that the war seemed to last 20 days, rather then a decade. I mean, it's not very realistic to believe the Greeks retreated right after they arrived. I doubt even our overly religieus Troyans could be that naive.

[Arledrian]

Good movie, saw it yesterday.

I enjoyed the epic battle scenes, the setting, and the suspense in the individual fights themselves.

Things I didn't like: the inevitable cheesiness ("Ohh, Poseidon frowns on us, sire, AIEEE!"), the unrealistic storyline, Orlando Bloom (didn't like him in this film - had a girly role and was made to seem inept and mentally deficient at times) and last but not least, the countless zoom-ins on Brad Pitt and his awful square jaw.

[ 05-30-2004, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: Arledrian ]

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

The best part of the movie was Paris crawling back to Hector like a dog when he lost his bottle in the duel...

[Ilander]

Since we keep comparing LotR to Troy anyway through Orlando Bloom, I just have to say this:
Viggo's Aragorn could beat the bejesus out of Brad's Achilles