Troy

dmzdmz
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
The reviewer over at WSJ kinda thought the movie SUCKED. No plot, bad CGI, etc.





Has anyone seen it?--- I haven't seen it yet. Has Hollywood groupthink diddled another classic story?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 42
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    well, we're going to see it simply because my wife needs to teach Homer's works, including the Iliad, next semester, just for reference to a pop-culture take on the story. here's hoping it won't be a painful couple of hours.
  • Reply 2 of 42
    argentoargento Posts: 483member
    I went last ngiht with a few buddies and one of them has a hardon for this kind of thing. THe movie was pretty good actually. The CGI wasn't terrible, at least for me because as long as it looks half way decent I don't mind. The onlyt hing is I'm glad I went so late because I have nothing to do at night, but it'd be hard to sit in the theater during the day or evening because it's a bit too long. I can't sit still for that long too often.
  • Reply 3 of 42
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    I thought it was funny that when Brad Pitt was on Charlie Rose last night, they tiptoed around to make sure they didn't give away any of the plot. Like, they showed clips from the Hector-Achilles combat but were careful not to mention who won. And they mentioned that "someone" gets dragged behind a chariot by Achilles. And they showed Priam begging for "someone's" body back.



    I mean, could anyone not know the gist of how this turns out? Is anyone really going to be on tenterhooks wondering what will happen to Hector, or Achilles, or Troy itself?
  • Reply 4 of 42
    kneelbeforezodkneelbeforezod Posts: 1,120member
    SPOILER ALERT@!!@#E@!#ORUNF#WQ:FOIH@#R:O\\



























    Apparently there is some kind of crazy twist involving a giant wooden horse (!)
  • Reply 5 of 42
    Apparently Patroclus becomes Achilles' 'cousin' in the movie.



    Which isn't a surprise if you think about it - I'm not sure Hollywood's ready to make a sword-and-sandal epic in which the hero's spurred to derring-do and fury by the death of his boyfriend.
  • Reply 6 of 42
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kneelbeforezod

    SPOILER ALERT@!!@#E@!#ORUNF#WQ:FOIH@#R:O\\



























    Apparently there is some kind of crazy twist involving a giant wooden horse (!)








  • Reply 7 of 42
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    I knew it was going to be bad after seeing the first teaser. Wolfgang Petersen has a knack for embellishing things too much as well.



    "Immortality. Take it, it's yours!"

    "Now you know who you're fighting."



    Who wrote the script??



    There's a TV interview where Pitt describes it as a "ten year war between the Greeks and the Troys" too. Heh.
  • Reply 8 of 42
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    real archaeologists are laughing at the continuity and historical errors:



    dead bodies in the film often get coins placed on their eyes...

    despite the fact that coinage wasn't invented until 600 years later.



    larger than life-size statues of metal or stone as shown in the movie...

    despite not being recorded until the bronze age was much further along in toolworking.



    costumes were apparently ok, but the jewelry, while accurately Trojan, was from centuries earlier
  • Reply 9 of 42
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Eugene

    I knew it was going to be bad after seeing the first teaser. Wolfgang Petersen has a knack for embellishing things too much as well.



    "Immortality. Take it, it's yours!"

    "Now you know who you're fighting."



    Who wrote the script??



    There's a TV interview where Pitt describes it as a "ten year war between the Greeks and the Troys" too. Heh.




    David Benioff writer of the book "25th Hour" and movie. I'm sure he's capable but you really cannot blame the writer since it's unlikely that his script wasn't mangled by the powers that be.



    I'll probably see when it comes out for the visuals. You can tell this movies wasn't going to be THAT faithful ...let's be honest Pitt as Achilles???? Orlando Bloom as Paris? Both are severely miscast for their characters. Bloom has shown nothing but a pretty face behind wooden acting skills. But hollywood is hoping the ladies take an interest in these boy toys. Leave'em home fellas. War is man's game.
  • Reply 10 of 42
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Unless they decided to change the way the story works, Paris shoots an arrow in Achilles's heel, game over.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    I'll probably see when it comes out for the visuals. You can tell this movies wasn't going to be THAT faithful ...let's be honest Pitt as Achilles???? Orlando Bloom as Paris? Both are severely miscast for their characters. Bloom has shown nothing but a pretty face behind wooden acting skills. But hollywood is hoping the ladies take an interest in these boy toys. Leave'em home fellas. War is man's game.



    As the legend goes, Paris was an ex-farmer/shepherd who got rolled into the whole sordid affair after he was taken advantage of by some of the Olympians. If Orlando Bloom plays him as a somewhat confused, dead behind the eyes simpleton (which inevitably is going to be the case for reasons you pointed out), then he is actually succeeding in a legend-accurate way.
  • Reply 11 of 42
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rok

    well, we're going to see it simply because my wife needs to teach Homer's works, including the Iliad, next semester, just for reference to a pop-culture take on the story. here's hoping it won't be a painful couple of hours.







    /rightlameexcuseshehas



  • Reply 12 of 42
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    didn't some cable station do a greek era movie not too long ago? maybe rome... actually, i'm thinking it was near cæsarian times, so rome. and another cable staion (possibly the same one) just released one about spartacus, or something? whats up with all the ancients? its cool and all, but i'm being bombarded.
  • Reply 13 of 42
    I just got back from it, and I must admit, it surpassed my expectations. (Which were not very high, mind you). As far as being true to the Iliad, well, it was not. But, as a movie, I did thouroughly enjoy it. Well, I guess that is all there is to say. I enjoyed it. It sure was not Lord Of The Rings, but better than I thought it would be.
  • Reply 14 of 42
    hyperb0lehyperb0le Posts: 142member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by thuh Freak

    didn't some cable station do a greek era movie not too long ago? maybe rome... actually, i'm thinking it was near cæsarian times, so rome. and another cable staion (possibly the same one) just released one about spartacus, or something? whats up with all the ancients? its cool and all, but i'm being bombarded.



    Yeah, about a year ago, some company (maybe ABC?) did a "Helen of Troy" movie. I only caught a few minutes of it, but it seemed pretty good. It's weird how society goes through phases. Five years ago, you couldn't get any young person to care about things that happened/fictionally happened a long time ago. Now you've got LotR, Many Troy movies, and some Julius Caesar movie coming out.
  • Reply 15 of 42
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hassan i Sabbah

    Apparently Patroclus becomes Achilles' 'cousin' in the movie.



    Which isn't a surprise if you think about it - I'm not sure Hollywood's ready to make a sword-and-sandal epic in which the hero's spurred to derring-do and fury by the death of his boyfriend.






    As far as movies' dialoges and stories go, I think we need more historical glossing over about as much as we need another anachronism.
  • Reply 16 of 42
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hassan i Sabbah

    Apparently Patroclus becomes Achilles' 'cousin' in the movie.



    Which isn't a surprise if you think about it - I'm not sure Hollywood's ready to make a sword-and-sandal epic in which the hero's spurred to derring-do and fury by the death of his boyfriend.




    Do you eat oysters, Hassan? Do you eat snails?
  • Reply 17 of 42
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    I saw the movie earlier today and it wasn't bad at all.
  • Reply 18 of 42
    argentoargento Posts: 483member
    Does anybody even think that the movie will even come historically close to what really happened, or even close to the Illyad for that matter? Come on people it was already a three hour movie they can't possibly come close to covering even a fraction of what happened. For what it tried to do I thought it was pretty good.
  • Reply 19 of 42
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Argento

    Does anybody even think that the movie will even come historically close to what really happened, or even close to the Illyad for that matter? Come on people it was already a three hour movie they can't possibly come close to covering even a fraction of what happened. For what it tried to do I thought it was pretty good.



    I don't think anyone knows what really happened.



    What we do know is that Achilles was dipped in the river styx as a baby, being held by the ankle, so he is invulnerable except on the heel. That's for certain.
  • Reply 20 of 42
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Splinemodel

    I don't think anyone knows what really happened.



    What we do know is that Achilles was dipped in the river styx as a baby, being held by the ankle, so he is invulnerable except on the heel. That's for certain.




    Heh. Well, actually one thing I LIKED is that they made it a point to actually paint various parts of the Iliad as myths. Now, I haven't read the Iliad, but I can safely assume by the posts here and by the fact that it's a Hollywood movie that it was NOT true to the writing. However, there are parts of the movie that at least attempt to show how real events could lead to myths. A child near the beginning of the movie says he he's heard that Achilles is invulnerable, which Achilles scoffs at. And when Achilles is shot through the heel, that single shot alone doesn't kill him, because he is also shot at least twice in the rest of his body.



    As far as how good it was as a movie... well, not perfect of course, but not too bad either. I enjoyed it. Corny at times, but fairly good overall. But seeing it just reminded me why I don't go to see a movie more than about once a month, if that.
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