Now I know more about history.
In 1193 B.C., the love-struck Prince Paris of Troy (Orlando Bloom) kidnaps legendary beauty Helen (Diane Kruger) from her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta, setting the two nations on a fast-and-sure collision course for war and bloodshed. The Greeks, including Achilles (Brad Pitt), marshal their entire armada, sail to Troy and begin a decade-long siege. Eric Bana plays Hector, the leader of the Trojan forces, and Sean Bean is the wily Ulysses.
I’m not a huge reader of old Greek mythology, but I know my way around it. However, due to this film, I may want to give them all a second reading.
This film is really great to look at, and you do have a fun time. The set pieces and costumes are extremely beautiful, and you almost feel as if you are in ancient Greece watching all these battles go on. The battle sequences are awesome. If you love watching bows fly in the sky, and swords be thrown around like frisbees, then this is definitely the film for you cause the violence here is down-right bangin’.
The problem with this film is that when all the action is not going on, there really isn’t much else to this film to keep you entertained for long. I thought that the script was pretty lame, and there are a lot of lines that seem cheesy and cliche.
You also can’t really connect to these characters cause the film is more about the events happening, and less about the actual people involved. The film doesn’t really give you an idea as to who the bad, and the guys are, and it’s not that you can make up that assumption for yourself, the film doesn’t really let you in to figure that out. So by the ending, I didn’t feel any real connection to these characters, and their fates were kind of not as important to me. These actual historical figures seem more of action hero cliches rather than actual people, and that’s the problem cause you could have actually rooted behind some of these people if the film just let you. But you are never really given that chance.
The acting for me here was pretty good. Brad Pitt is oddly in this film, and it seems kind of strange, but I think this was his days before Angelina, so it’s kind of understandable that his career didn’t really pick up just yet. He’s good as Achillies and actually brings a charm to his character that I wasn’t expecting him to do with such a cheesy script, but that just proves his skills as an actor. I also liked Eric Bana as well, and thought that his performance as Hector, brought a lot of emotion to the film that it needed. Orlando Bloom was kind of a downer for me, cause his performance isn’t that good, and his character is even worse. I don’t know what he was trying to do here, but being compelling surely wasn’t one of them. Diane Kruger is alright in this film as well as Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Rose Byrne, Peter O’Toole, and the always reliable Brian Cox.
Consensus: It’s beautiful to look at, and the action is exciting, but the film’s bad script, keeps Troy away from the emotional resonance that could have actually helped the film be more than just a standard action movie.
6/10=Rental!!
Dan the Man's Movie Reviews 
I definitely agree about not having that great a script and really not connecting to to the characters but at least the action sequences were good!
They were, I will give them that!
I really do hate this film, even thought the action was just so-so. Massive disappointment, unengaging, dull and overall on a par with the awful Kingdom of Heaven. Harsh maybe but it’s how I feel.
Hey you know yourself better than I do. I do think it could have been a lot better when it came to the script.
The Iliad is one of my all-time favorite reads (though not in the original Greek 😦 ). Big strong guys get really, really mad at each other and then go at it. The power still comes through after more than 2500 years. Pitt and Bana aren’t big enough and can’t get mad enough onscreen to do the Iliad justice, though.
They tried, but I think it was the script that was just a huge let-down really.
I saw this when it first came out and have absolutely no idea what happened or who was in it. I mean, Sean Bean ? Adore him, but don’t remember at all who he played or what he did. Can’t think of any other film that had as a massive production as this but I don’t recollect at all.
I don’t think you were the only one my man, this is a pretty forgotten about big budget feature.
I remember thinking at the time, why did they even bother with this film? How was it ever relevant to modern society? Would a modern audience appreciate the fine art of swordplay from a historical perspective? Sadly, Wolfgang never managed to make this film even remotely interesting to me, and I agree with you about the characters feeling remote and uninvolving. You’re so right about it being more about the events than the people.
And to Shirley above me there, Kingdom Of Heaven was a lot better in its Director’s Cut version than the one they put into cinemas. Can I advise you to revisit KOH in that version instead, you may find yourself enjoying it a lot more.
Cheers!
This is just a film that really didn’t do much here, and KOH Director’s Cut will be something on it’s way soon from the Netflix Queue.
Something I find fascinating that I did not know about wars of this era is that even after a long war, the warriors make up and hair seem to be untouched. I didn’t find that in Plato.
But Good review.
Very true my man, thank you!
This film was very disappointing. The screenplay sucked and I’m a history buff. I liked the action and battle sequences. I loved Eric Bana in this film along with Peter O’Toole and Brian Cox. Yet, the non-action moments were quite a downer for me as well.
I loathed Orlando Bloom in that film. He really sucked. It proved that when he’s not a elf or being Johnny Depp’s foil. There isn’t anything he can do. He was OK in Kingdom of Heaven but I’ve yet to see the director’s cut of that film.
This didn’t have much going for it when the action sequences were over, and I really did not like Bloom here.
There is some good moments in this film but as a whole, it didn’t engage me viscerally. The battle between Hercules and Hector was really well built up but the movie just goes downhill from there. The second half is just really bland.
It’s basically all bland, and despite that scene, some of the other eventful scenes, just don’t quite work.
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen this, but I strongly remember not liking it. Didn’t care for the characters and I don’t remember much else about it. I do know that it’s a movie I don’t want to see again though.
Don’t spend time watching it, cause it’s very long and if you didn’t like it the first time, the second time around won’t be better.
I thought it was entertaining. The script was a little bland, and Bloom was his usual annoying self. But the action, costumes and set all made it pretty fun for me.
That’s why I gave this a bit of higher rating, it just was OK to say the least.
Yeah, this film has always been pretty dull. Some good fight scenes though. Paticularly when Brian Cox beats up poor Orlando Bloom.
Nothing like seeing a good old fashioned beat down of the little pretty boy Bloom.
A pretty mediocre movie with some serious miscasting that’s almost worth watching just for the scene in which Priam begs Achilles for his son’s body.
Normally I’m a huge fan of Pitt but he just didn’t work for me here, and as much as Bloom fits into that Paris mold physically, he’s about as interesting to watch as a wooden board. (The board, on second thought, is probably more expressive.) Bana, O’Toole, limited amounts of Bean and Cox, and Kruger make up for their cast members, but overall this could have been a lot more exciting.
Maybe next time, don’t cut the gods out of the script, yeah?
True, it’s not an amazing film, but for me, I had an alright time just looking at this film.