Matthew Chmiel

I enjoyed the movie. I had fun with what it was and I know the film won't win any awards, but I got a kick out of it.

There should've been more nudity through.

Shamu

I hated Troy. It' was even worse than Van Helsing.

Van Helsing was so pathetic that it was probably the funniest unintentionally funny movie. Troy was just bad.

The audience was laughing some at this movie, especially whenever Legolas said anything.

JasonF

Not so -- Peter O'Toole is going to win Best Supporting Actor. Not necessarily for Troy (though I thought he was quite good as Priam), but as a reaction to the whole "Lifetime Achievement Award" fiasco last year.

FiveO

Saw it today.

Enjoyed the 2nd half much more than the first....and the first 1/2 was realllly bad.

The acting seemed almost hollow during most of the film. The emotion just wasn't there.




If you have to see it...go to a matinee...don't waste the extra money.

Corvin

While I agree the second half is stronger than the first, I really enjoyed all of Troy. It'll be the third movie this year that I'm going to see twice, the others being The Fog of War and Eternal Sunshine.

I'll quote Wilmington from the Tribune. He summarized well how I feel about Troy:

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/m...-mw-troy.story

I'm a bit saddened that more people didn't like it. So it goes.

Tyler_Durden

MaXYYYY

Damn guys... I really really liked this movie. Definitely the first movie since Fellowship of the Ring, where I walked out of the theatre feeling like a new man. The events that these characters go through are just simply tragic and unfortunate, I think all the characters, even Bana and Pitt, show their reluctance at all times. I beleived it thoroughly, and this will be the first movie since Last Samurai that I go to see a second time in theatres...

mllefoo

I saw this film last night. I went in not really expecting much because I had originally told the hub that I wanted to wait for the DVD on this one.

In spite of Brad Pitt's nudity - it was "artful" nudity, folks; nothing to see here - and his odd accent, the movie was really good.

Harrison Ford once said that if you're watching a great actor, you shouldn't see that actor, but the character he portrays. That said, it took me a while to get past Brad Pitt's brooding Brad Pitt face, but I eventually accepted him as the greatest warrior of all time. His shining moment was his scene with Peter O'Toole, who would probably bring out the best in anyone just by his sheer presence.

Orlando Bloom was a pretty face, but the character in the Iliad was a shallow, cowardly pretty boy, too, so no miscast here. I thought he did a pretty good job, and his best scenes were when his character was at his most cowardly.

It was nice to see both points of view in this movie. The Greeks weren't the bad guys and the Trojans weren't the bad guys. I found myself rooting for both, and hoping various characters wouldn't die, even though I knew they would. I was curious to see how they would handle Achilles final scene (no spoiler here, you should know the myth already [[but then, people got pissed at me when I told them Apollo 13 made it back...]]) and make it believeable.

As for the gore, there is a bit of it, but most is implied. The scene where we first see Achilles in action is amazing and quick. The wound he inflicts looks deadly, but limbs don't necessarily fly.

Oddly enough, I found myself rooting for the brute in the army. Ajax. He looked like a buff and battlescarred Tor Johnson (with hair).

I will definitely be picking this up when it's released to DVD. I really liked it.

JasonF

I think that what happened to Ajax in the mythology is a lote more interesting than what happened to him in the movie. Menelaus, too, for that matter.

Anyone who's a fan of the Trojan War ought to check out Age of Bronze, a great comic book about the Trojan War.

Zodiac_Speaking

Too critical. But I think it was better than the overall people are saying. Granted, some scenes were paced like a snail, but too, me that's the only bad.
Well, this wasn't Pitt's greatest performance, but I can't picture anyone else in the role.
The two best roles were for Brian Cox and Eric Bana.
The action was top-notch. Gore was great. I don't think it will be nominated for anything, but who cares? This is why we (or I) go to the movies, to have fun. Granted my review wasn't too in-depth, but I have to go now, and well, who's reading five pages in?
Grade: B

QuikSilver

I thought the film was way too long. In the first half, I found myself looking at my watch a lot which is not a good sign. Then things started to pick up at the end.

Frank TJ Mackey

Orlando Bloom is such a tiny, little flea, I can't think of a worse choice to play Paris.

Pitt was decent, but his accent wavored back and forth.

Rose Byrne was good as the cousin of Hector and Paris.

Saffron Burrows was lovely as Hector's wife.

I agree with Ebert that this is Greek mythology and Achilles should not be conflicted about anything, like he was in the film.

Still an enjoyable 2 1/2 hours, worth checking out.

whynotsmile

just came back from it. good, not great. pitt was very boring and wooden and cox did overacted, but at least he was interesting. eric bana kicked 10 kinds of ass. a super star in the making for sure.

i enjoyed it overall but it needed some work. first of all, it started pretty slow. the dialouge throughout the movie was a bit wooden and stiff. It didn't pull oyu in. THe sets were very nice, and very little CGI. the battles scenes were impressive, but once again you feel like youve seen it all before. it doesn't really stand out.

once it picked up i kept getting beter. didnt look at my watch once. they did glaze over the trojan horse though. i thought that needed some more time.


overall, pretty good. i'd give it a B/ b-


fun eye candy, sadly i wasn't drawn in much

Flave

All in all, I'd have to say I really enjoyed this movie. Sure it has its flaws, but for the most part it delivers an entertaining 2 1/2 hours.

Brad Pitt delivers a very solid performance but Peter O'Toole steals the movie. Eric Bana is a very good actor but I don't think he has the size or presence to credibly pull off his role as Hector. And I really liked Rose Byrne, who plays Achilles' romantic interest Briseis. I think she delivers the widest emotional range of any actor in this movie. As for Orlando Bloom? Bleh.

If you go into this movie with no expectation of seeing an accurate recounting of 'The Iliad' or of watching a film that will challenge you, you should find this movie quite entertaining. Just sit back, turn off your brain, and enjoy the show.

Patman

This filmed surprised me with its pacing, for a film that's longer than Gladiator, it felt much more brisk and economical.

Brad Pitt took a bit getting used to as Achilles, but as the film progressed, I settled into his take on the character. Orlando Bloom and newcomer Diana Kruger were outclassed in the acting department by the rest of the cast who were overall pretty good, even newcomer Rose Byrne. I admit to wondering how green Eric Bana would get when he showed anger. Heh.

Watching an interpretation of Homer's "The Iliad" with a big budget was pretty cool, even though the screenplay played loose with the timeline, compressing it to keep up the dramatic tension. Is the film short on character development? Maybe, not distractingly so. Enough of the different angles by which the participants in the drama/war were presented to understand the motivations (though a couple were hammered home a few times too many).

Otherwise, an entertaining enough film to sit through at the theaters, especially with a running time over 2.5 hours.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

B.A.

I liked it better than I thought I would. I'd give it ***1/2 out of *****.

Like Patman, I liked Pitt as Achilles more as the movie went on, though they need to quit trying to have him use an accent or cry - those are the only things he cannot do. I enjoyed Bana's performance as Hector and O'Toole was good, except his eyes looked as if they were going to pop out a couple of times. I didn't care for Orlando or Bryan Cox (and I always like Bryan Cox) too much. The newcomer, Rose Byrne, was great. Her and Diana Kruger are extremely beautiful. Burrows and Bean did what they were supposed to do.

I thought they could have done w/out some of the sweeping overhead shots and they could have trimmed some of the excess here and there, but they did an acceptable job w/ the story.

The fight scenes looked great - you can tell Pitt and Bana put the time in to make them work as well they did. I enjoyed watching Achilles' crew work together when they stormed the beach, etc. The battle before the wall of Troy was top notch, too. Ajax was fun to watch.

The best part of the movie - the rolling balls of fire that Hector unleashed on the beach where the Greeks were encamped. That scene looked great.

Corvin

My favorite scene (I'll spoiler tag it, but oh dear. . .):

Patman

Here's some more thoughts, a few with spoiler, I guess:

Running time was probably the reason for the changes and deviations from the source material.

If you watch the Hector-Achilles fight,

Both Pitt and Bana "went for it" when filming their fight scenes, and Bana got in more "contact" (each had to pay up for each 'real hit') and had to pay Pitt for instances where swings and blows were landed.

The opening fight looked far too CGI and fake, and that pulled me out of the scene briefly, and I was hoping the duels and combat scenes weren't going to look that bad, and thankfully nothing looked that CGI-ish for up-close battles for the rest of the film.

I still don't know how people don't lose eyeballs when they film the insane up-close combat scenes of hundreds and thousands of soldiers swinging and stabbing at each other.

Orlando Bloom was pretty bad, acting-wise, in this film, which is too bad because a better actor could have elevate the love affair between Helen and Paris to something more than just subtext for an invasion by Agamemnon.

What's next for Orlando Bloom? Will he be cast in a "Green Arrow" movie? Typecasting awaits...

Diana Kruger was equally as wooden when she delivered her lines. Sure, Helen's face was known to have launched a thousand ships, but Kruger's acting would never have inspired such call to arms.

Sean Bean was pretty down to earth for a king (Odysseus), and Rose Byrne had good fire burning from within as Briseis. I liked the scene between King Priam and Achilles, O'toole and Pitt are good in that scene.

It took a while to warm up to Bana as Hector, but as the film rolled on, I really wanted his idealism to overcome his biggest challenge, taking on Achilles mano-a-mano.

SuprVgeta

Saw it tonight, it was alright. The love scenes were pretty stale, and there was some corny dialogue. I liked Orlando as Legolas in LOTR, but didn't like him all that much in this movie. I found myself rooting for Eric Bana throughout the movie, which is funny because I didn't think he was all that great in the Hulk.

Rivero

Saw the movie last night. This is what I remember thinking for most of the 3 hour and 45 minute running time of this flick:



1) Brad Pitt is a much better actor when he plays junkies and weirdos.

2) The Lord of the Rings has set the standard that other modern film epics will have to live up to.

3) That preview of the couple stranded in the ocean looked pretty cool.

4) This movie would be a hell of a lot better if Mel Gibson made it. The battle scenes would be incredible and everyone would really be speaking Greek.

IIG

Man, I don't know what there is to complain about. This probably tops Gladiator as the best epic of recent years. I haven't felt that good about a film leaving the theater since Episode 2 (take that for what you will). It's hard for me to say that its better than Kill Bill 2, but it is definitely the secodn ebst film of the year, if it is not the first. The Academy should give Pitt, Bana, and O'Toole serious consideration!

Rivero

Guess you missed Lord of the Rings.

baracine

Doesn't anybody miss the character of Cassandra as both an exposition and point-of-view device and a "Greek chorus"? Could it be the writer and director didn't want any spoilers to ruin the suspense? If so, that's pretty dumb, if you ask me.

Of course it also allows them to boast: "The Iliad... Now, for the first time, without persky motor-mouth virgins!"

LorenzoL

I watched the movie last night and came out of the theatre disliking it. I don't know what was worst Van Helsing or Troy.

I liked some part of the movie like the individual fight scenes and the performances of Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom (yes, I thought his performance as Paris was dead on just like in the "Illiad").

But there were things that bothered about this movie that I can't overlook and led me not enjoying it:

- Everything was centered around Brad Pitt. It's one thing to emphasize Achilles as the main hero but taking liberties of the "Illiad" and having him participate in a battle that he was nowhere near, just so we can have more Brad Pitt is an insult.
- The big battles scenes were done better in other movies like the LOTR and paled in comparison.
- The movie felt too melodramatic, almost like a soap opera episode with some battles scenes.
- I think the producers tried to make this epic of a movie in the same veins as LOTR and Gladiator but the end results were horribly wrong.

P.S. Did anybody else thought the actress (Rose Byrne) that plays Briseis looked like a younger Monica Belluci. I'm talking more about the facial features.

RockStrongo

I saw it last night at the digital theater (DLP). I liked it alot. I give it a B+.

I really like these types of movies though. The acting was cheesy in parts, but the fighting and war scenes made up for it in my mind.

Pitt was good and looked great (especially in the nude scenes...oh what I would give for an ass like that).

I can't wait for the 2 disk special edition DVD!