Who else has seen Troy?

[MAlibdem]

I think it sucked.

The war was pretty pointless (at least as presented in the film) and I still don't have a clue as to why Achilles wanted to go to war in the first place. There was little motivation for any of the fighting, though it was well choreographed.

Thoughts?

[blingbling8ball]

1. Iraq

Reminds me of what's goin on in Iraq.

[newyawker99]

15. Hi blingbling8ball!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[truhavoc]

2. I viewed it as being pretty decent

I thought the anti-religious and anti-war prospects of the film to be especially potent in such a big budget hollywood blockbuster. I am not sure if the writer/director of the script was ridiculing greek mythology or just making a comment towards the use of religion in war - I would make a nice interview question.

[RoBear]

3. Haven't seen it, but...

I heard one of the lines was something like, "Helen has escaped with the Trojans." It'd almost be worth it to hear that line and hear the titters in the audience. I'll probably wait for it to get to the $2 movie house.

[WildClarySage]

4. The fifteen minute version was pretty good...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/cleolinda/99710.html

[Doug Decker]

5. Agamemnon wanted to overthrow Troy just as he had ....

defeated all the Grecian kings. The taking of Helen by Paris, who is the young son of the King of Troy, was an excuse to do so. Agemennon was power hungry and wanted to control the entire known world.

Seems similar to the current situation in Iraq.

Achilles was told he would have eternal fame if he went to battle, but would have a family and love if he chose not to. He chose fame.

Just my take on the movie.

Edit: clarity

[Screaming Lord Byron]

6. He went out to do some shopping. He'll be back later.

[Justitia]

7. Yup, disappointing.

First, not true to The Iliad, but I didn't expect literary accuracy.

Too many fight scenes, no character plots (Peter O'Toole was the best thing in the movie).

Not even any good beefcake, even though they kept the hype for that on high.

And I got sick of hearing over and over and over about how they were going to go down in history as the biggest badasses, like, ever!

Sigh....I miss good movies.

[mmm]

9. LOTR it ain't

I enjoy well done fight scenes as much as the next viewer,
but a movie must also have a solid script and well developed
characters so that you care about what happens.
So many modern movies have undeveloped characters -
you just don't care enough about them to get anxious
when they fight or all blubbery when they are killed.

That ain't a movie; that's half a movie!

[beyurslf]

8. Terrible. Long. Boring.

Was I the only person in the theater who READ the BOOK? Everyone as they were leaving kept saying how good it was and how much like the story it was.

[Justitia]

10. Good Lord, no!

That makes me slap myself in the forehead, rendering myself unconscious.

[mmm]

11. Well... it features Brad Pitt, and he looks like the cover art on the book

Plus, there were lots of sword fights - just like the
olden days!

Nine out of ten Americans recognize the fact that
jets and nuclear bombs have little or nothing to do with
the olden days.

[lazarus]

12. I've read the book

as well as the Odyssey and the Aeneid. My wife has, as well.

And I thought the film was just fine. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't great, but it was quite good. That's all I was looking for.

Let's face it, the characterisations were quite accurate. Achilles was a spoiled prima donna, for instance.

I have to agree with the director regarding why he dropped the gods from the story. Once you introduce the gods and start including them in everything, you're just doing Clash of the Titans again.

A lot of it depends on what you went in expecting. If, against all reason, you actually expected the full Iliad in a 2 hour movie, of course you were disappointed. Instead, you got what was reasonable; a decent distillation of several elements of what was an absolutely huge story. Heck, one could do an entire film of just Ajax, and he was a bit player.

I did want at least one person to say "rosy fingers of dawn" at some point, though. :D

[Skarbrowe]

13. Brad Pitt

I didn't want to see the movie because Brad Pitt was too surfer boy American , in my opinion, compared to the other great actors in the film. But what can you do when you live in Florida and your dang air conditioner quits. Anyway, Brad surprised me. He wasn't THAT bad. I had read all "the books" in college and didn't remember one thing, so it was all more or less new to me.

I thought it was OK. Not good or bad. I'm craving a really good movie.

Skarbrowe

[lazarus]

14. actually

Brad Pitt is a fine actor. He's managed to star in four of my top ten films somehow: Snatch, Fight Club, Ocean's Eleven, and Twelve Monkeys.

And he captured Achilles perfectly, IMO. Achilles was a glory hound prima donna.