Troy (2004)

The battle that the world has heard of for centuries gets the good ol’ Hollywood treatment in the new film Troy. And look at all the hype. Brad Pitt as Achilles! Sean Bean as Odysseus! Orlando Bloom as Paris! Eric “The Hulk (2003)” Bana as Hector! Wow! It can’t lose, right? Well…

Everyone seemed specifically suited for their individual roles in this film. Brad Pitt took Achilles’ self-serving pretty boy to all new heights, then did an almost complete swap by the end of the film - and made it believable.

Orlando Bloom played the not as heroic, love-struck Paris to a T. He offered up quite a bit of vulnerability and innocence that the girls love him for (and he shows over and over again - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003) being a prime example).

Sean Bean played a rather understated Odysseus quite well, sort of fading him quite a bit into the background, so that the famous Odysseus wouldn’t overshadow the other players in the film.

Eric Bana also redeems himself after his abysmal portrayal of everybody’s green-skinned guy, playing Hector with a passion he never displayed in Hulk.

The other characters, on the other hand…well, let’s just say they became little more than background noise. Brian Cox does little more than rant and rave, while Diane Kruger mopes about in pretty much every scene. Brendan Gleeson’s role is mostly just a bit part, so he never really gets a chance to make his on-screen presence felt. And the rest? Mostly just background noise as well - the only difference being a decent performance from Peter O’Toole as the king of Troy.

The plot - well, it’s hard to take a story most everyone is familiar with and throw in any real surprises. It is interesting that with some new evidence floating around (see Clive Cussler’s Trojan Odyssey for more info) that they decided to go back to the original myths on how the battle was fought - and where. It does make it more exciting, with classic tragic heroes like Achilles in the mix, and it definitely gives it more of a kick when the film follows a tale that many have grown up with (why did you think a mediocre film like The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) did so well? Because it was a great movie? Hardly).

Another selling point for this film: it’s a war movie girls will actually enjoy. With the epic romances in the film - not to mention a couple of movie biz superstuds - the girls will easily be talked into seeing this film. In fact, they might talk a guy or two into seeing it! What was the last war movie you can remember where that happened? I can’t think of one either.

The epic battle scenes, while full of special effects wizardry, pale a little in comparison with the standard that all battle scenes are now compared with: the confrontations between armies in The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002). Those scenes brought the viewer right into the battle, and upped the ante for any battle scenes to follow. The battle sequences in Troy fall a bit short of that, seeming almost comical at some points (look at that pileup, with swords and shields flying up in the air! Are they celebrating a football touchdown, or fighting a war?).

Troy really shines in the one-on-one battles that are sprinkled here and there (Achilles vs. Hector is a classic, and will most likely stand the test of time in film history - long after the rest of the movie falls into oblivion).

A war movie with loads of epic romance and women-pleasing leading men turns a guy movie into something both sexes will probably want to see. But is it worth it? While it doesn’t stand up to The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002), it does do a decent job of telling a classic story. The actors divide into bit parts and leading roles, but the leading men do a good job of helping the movie through to it’s final conclusion.

Is it worth owning? No, probably not - but the one-on-one fight scenes are worth checking out at least once.