Troy

I saw Troy the other night on HBO. I can’t help but think that it could have been better. After a while, I bought Brad Pitt as Achilles. I had to keep thinking of him in Fight Club for that tough guy image. It was okay simply because I think it is pretty hard to screw up a story like the Iliad that has been told for 3,000 years. It is one of mankind’s great stories. I could film it and couldn’t screw it up too badly.

Somehow Wolfgang Peterson seemed to forget about cutting and editing. It all seemed to merge into a hodgepodge. It was disjointed. While the costumes and backgrounds were nice, I kept getting the feeling that they filmed without setting up each scene.

I have to wonder about the Achilles character. He was having an internal fight without much to show for it. I don’t understand his love for that girl. I don’t understand why he was losing himself. There was no set up. He said once or twice that killing was what he was. Well, I don’t see what prompted him to fight that inside himself.

I will say this—the choreography and the fighting scenes were excellent. Top notch.

And I have to keep telling myself that this was the Iliad. It is kind of a fantasy. It is an epic, a tale of men greater than anything the world had ever seen. I think it is safe to say that Achilles was the greatest warrior of all time (not leader). So when Achilles calls Hector out when a barrage of arrows would have finished it was noble and honorable. King Priam even wanted his son Paris to fight, for honor, regardless that he was dying. You don’t run away from a fight. The Iliad stands for something that is greater than real life. So I think this movie did that, to a degree.

I liked it. I enjoyed watching it, even though some of the scenes, between brothers, between husband and wife, between lovers, seemed to rehash the same old ground. I am still waiting for these new blockbusters to WOW me, not just pump movies out to be digested like a dinner of a bologna sandwich. Sure, it may fill you up briefly, but it isn’t the best tasting thing out there. I want Hollywood to cook me a steak.

(Please, please, please, let Superman Returns next year be good. Please.)