Troy

A sugary parade of stars and spectacular fight scenes. The actors are decent and the production design is nice. The fight between Achilles and Hector may be the best I have seen in the genre, though that’s debatable. Troy doesn’t have even a fraction of the charm of William Wyler’s films and is nothing more than a calculated, technically brilliant popcorn flick. (13/05/2004)

Troy is notable primarily as a case study on how Hollywood adapts a classic work with countless characters, motifs and both supernatural and earthbound elements into the form of a spectacular mainstream popcorn epic needing fewer characters, a few cleanly resolved storylines and, mainly, the omission of everything that could be off-putting for the supposed majority of viewers, i.e. everything from deities to non-heterosexual relationships. (15/09/2023)

Troy is definitely not bad and it has everything that a big-budget production can offer: young and attractive actors, solid war scenes and somewhat decent romance. Above all, it benefits from the stunning Iliad, although unfortunately it only took the rough skeleton and some essential events from it. The notable drawbacks are Diane Kruger and Orlando Bloom, who seem like advertising mannequins – completely unbelievable. On the other hand, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana are surprising. Wolfgang Petersen is more than a decent craftsman who can handle large budgets and thousands of extras. The ending is powerful and the voice-overs are extremely stylish and suitable for this type of film. It's necessary to see the Director's cut, it has gripping bloody battles and at least half a star up. (24/05/2004)

There’s a problem with Troy. On one hand it has excellent acting performances and spectacular production design, on the other fluctuating directing and stiff dialogs. The screenplay is also a little shaky, making it seem like the Trojan War lasted just a couple of months, instead of ten years. But I appreciate that Benioff wrote everything to be very natural (meaning non-fantasy) and “undivine". But back to Peterson’s directing. In the battles and in some scenes he show that he is able to invoke the right atmosphere and knows how to form the action properly, but in some places he lacks consistency. The music is also a handicap, written in haste by a new composer at the last minute. In terms of acting, as I already said, Troy is excellent. Surprisingly the main star Brad Pitt is easily overshadowed by Eric Bana (both my eyes were moist when Hector was dying ;). Sean Bean didn’t manage to steal much room for his Odysseus, but even so he easily nailed the role of treacherous king. I must also admit that Orlando Bloom had a very thankless role. Playing the greatest idiot in the greatest Greek war isn’t such a trump as it may seem at first sight. But he did a fine job of the role and I must admit that throughout the movie I kept on swearing at Paris under my breath. I remember one thing that made me feel for him for a minute. It was in the scene on the coast when he said: “Burn that horse." And they didn’t obey him. (16/12/2006)

An ambitious epic that stumbles over its miserable screenplay and idealess directing. A tirade of mediocre scenes and seeming ignorance of the myth make Troy an uninteresting attempt at a great movie which is closer to being a big studio sword-and-sandal Cecil B. DeMille epic than a modern movie intended for the big screen. ♫ OST score: 2/5 (29/01/2007)