I saw Troy today. I must say that I was not very impressed as a whole. The movie is certainly worth watching mind you. I was just struck with how many small things were going wrong that might have otherwise made it a great movie (ala Gladiator).

First off the soundtrack was horrible. Composed in 13 days by James Horner the music was a mis-mash of many of his past used themes. Now you are saying "yeah his music is always a bit like that". Multiply "a bit" by 12 and then you will get a feeling for how bad this was. The sad thing is that they had a completely original score done by Gabrial Yared (Cold Mountain, City of Angels). This soundtrack was apparently axed in post production in favor of this rushed soundtrack by Horner. BIG MISTAKE.

For those interested you can actually hear some of Yared's original music here: http://www.gabrielyared.com. Click News and then Troy Soundtrack.

The second compaint was the shoddy cinematography and editing. The opening scene was enough to warn me not to expect greatness. I couldn't tell whether they were going for a "Black Hawk Down" look but it was a poor opening sequence by comparison (again) to Gladiator.

The good parts were the effects and the fight scenes. I must say the fight scene between Achilles and Hector was one of the best I have every seen.

Grade: C+

Cheers,
Jim

PS: Did anyone else think that Willow and Mad Martigan were going to come charging out of some dark corner in the final fall of Troy scene?

Helen was so damn sexy...

I'm with you Jim. What could've been something so great, a perfect story for an epic movie, got hosed. Don't get me wrong guys, it's worth seeing, some great battle scenes, and the fight between Hector and Achilles is pretty damn good.

I would have to say the weakest part of the movie (to me) was Brads acting. It just didn't fit the character for me.

I also heard this one cost $200 million to make. Can anyone confirm this?

I broke down and let my teen-aged daughter see Troy over the weekend. To put things in prospective guys the first comment out of her friends mouth when they got back into the car was, "we got to see Brad Pitt's butt!" I also shocked my daughter about knowing some of the things that happened in the movie without seeing it. Seems she hadn't quite grasped the concept that the movie had been done a few times before or that a BOOK, let alone a epic poem, could be this exciting.

StuckSowie, MSN says it cost $175 million.

The face that launched a 1000 ships

Or a million, given the amount they tried to cram into that one shot...

Here's my review from another board...

Not a bad flick overall...

Good things:

o Hector - excellent job.. really solidified the movie for me, when weak acting was the norm from the other cast members
o Although the battle scenes were rather ho-hum (nothing you haven't seen before in everything from Braveheart to LOTR), the fight between Achillies and Hector was excellent!
o The Horse - it was well done
o Orlando Bloom - I dislike him as an actor, and I found myself hating him in this movie - which I think was his intent
o Hectors dad - can't remember his name. EXCELLENT performance.
o The night time attack on the beach - very cool...

The Bad:
o Brad Pitt - really uninspired. Didn't feel like he really wanted the lead. He was out acted and out performed by Eric Bana (Hector)
o Not a good looking chick in this movie.... Even Helen was average... like, What the heck!???
o Brian Cox (Agnamemnon) is one of my fav actors... But he seemed to struggle with the role of the cocky king...
o Orlando Bloom - for the exact reasons he's named above.
o the CGI for the boats... I think directors are getting lazy. The figure if they have one boat, that 2 would be better. that 50 would be better than that. that 10000 would be the best... The shot was so overdone, I just laughed outlloud in the theatre... :S
o Who the heck is Boagrius?? He never existed!
o I think the worst part of the movie, was the MUSIC. It was UNINSPIRED, and often didn't seem to fit the action that was going on... How often can one listen to the beat of 2 drums?? I could still hear them beating hours after I'd left the theater...


Anyways, that's my take on it. Still work the $8 I paid to see it though.

You took the words right out of my mind. :-)

At any rate, I was kinda hoping they would stay close to the story Homer wrote in Iliad and the stories grounded in Greek mythology though.

After watching it, they seem to leave out "divine intervention." Like how Paris fell for Helen (thanks to Aphrodite). At any rate, (not wanting to be a spoiler), compare the movie to what the story of the Trojan War went (based on Homer's Iliad and related literature).

I think what I enjoyed most about the film is that they put the story in perspective. It was afterall an economic/control of the world struggle back then, and I seriously doubt the war lasted for I think the Illiad persented it as ten years(?) Me I enjoyed it, but things like actors and soundtracks have absolutely no interest to me. I go for stories/accuracy of uniforms, equipment, and battle scenes. I've never been someone who gets so involved as to critque a movie so bad about trivial points that it loses enjoyability. Ya'll need to just sit back and enjoy things once in a while instead of trying to be Siskel and Ebert.

Haven't seen the film but I heard a funny story concerning it:

The film progresses in the theatre as usual. When the troops come out of the horse suddenly some woman in the audience says (rather loud) "I knew it!" :-)

Just seen it last night and seen a bit of a boo boo in it,
I think its were Helen sees troy for the 1st time? there seems to be a lama in it very brefily (for about 1 sec) now I know you get hairy camels but this never had a hump

Jim-
you said it all for me!! haha so i guess i wont repeat, and shonen red




yes..... beautiful