I've read the Illiad several times and always like the story. So my little brother and I went and saw this last Friday night.
First off I wanna say that I thought it was a pretty good show, I'd give it a solid 'B' for giving a great story a good treatment.
The fact that kind of irked me was that in the treatment they used or the film, they pretty much removed the chess like strategy of the Gods. The Greek Gods are mentioned only in passing throughout the movie. We know that Apollo watches over the Troy since he has a temple there, but that's it. Agamemnon petitions Zeus in a prayer, Achilles mentions Aries, and the Trojan Priest mentions Apollo.
Sure we know Achilles is not easily wounded, but why? We're never told...
Sure we know that Achilles disgraced the Temple of Apollo at Troy, but how mad was Apollo at Achilles? We never quite know...
Some are arguing that if they had added the Gods it would have a similar feel to Clash of the Titans... and I would tend to agree. That would be campy.
After I started thinking about it, I kind of liked the fact that left it up to the human element of the warriors in the battle. The movie was almost three hours long and adding the Gods to the mi would have added another good hour to the film.
But its in the same vane as Gladiator, Spartacus, and Braveheart, and it works for the most part.
All in all the acting is good, even though the cast is more like a Braveheart reunion (I counted 4) as well as a trio of Marvel Characters (Eric "The Hulk" Bana as Hector, Tyler "Sabertooth" Mane as Ajax and Brian "Stryker" Cox as Agamemnon) and a pair from LOTR (Orlando "Legolas" Bloom as Paris and Sean "Boromir" Bean as Odyssess).
I don't normally like Brad Pitt, but I could tolerate him in Ocean's Eleven and in this film, and Peter O'Toole did a great job as King Priam.
Like I said, it you are a fan of The Iliad, its a faithful adaptaion of the human element of the war.
But what I would like to see as a follow up is The Odyssey with Sean Bean taking the reigns on that one.
Again, a solid B or *** of ****.
First off I wanna say that I thought it was a pretty good show, I'd give it a solid 'B' for giving a great story a good treatment.
The fact that kind of irked me was that in the treatment they used or the film, they pretty much removed the chess like strategy of the Gods. The Greek Gods are mentioned only in passing throughout the movie. We know that Apollo watches over the Troy since he has a temple there, but that's it. Agamemnon petitions Zeus in a prayer, Achilles mentions Aries, and the Trojan Priest mentions Apollo.
Sure we know Achilles is not easily wounded, but why? We're never told...
Sure we know that Achilles disgraced the Temple of Apollo at Troy, but how mad was Apollo at Achilles? We never quite know...
Some are arguing that if they had added the Gods it would have a similar feel to Clash of the Titans... and I would tend to agree. That would be campy.
After I started thinking about it, I kind of liked the fact that left it up to the human element of the warriors in the battle. The movie was almost three hours long and adding the Gods to the mi would have added another good hour to the film.
But its in the same vane as Gladiator, Spartacus, and Braveheart, and it works for the most part.
All in all the acting is good, even though the cast is more like a Braveheart reunion (I counted 4) as well as a trio of Marvel Characters (Eric "The Hulk" Bana as Hector, Tyler "Sabertooth" Mane as Ajax and Brian "Stryker" Cox as Agamemnon) and a pair from LOTR (Orlando "Legolas" Bloom as Paris and Sean "Boromir" Bean as Odyssess).
I don't normally like Brad Pitt, but I could tolerate him in Ocean's Eleven and in this film, and Peter O'Toole did a great job as King Priam.
Like I said, it you are a fan of The Iliad, its a faithful adaptaion of the human element of the war.
But what I would like to see as a follow up is The Odyssey with Sean Bean taking the reigns on that one.
Again, a solid B or *** of ****.
Comment