I finally saw the most eagerly-awaited epic of the year last night. I liked it better than I thought I would, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana. Even if Eric Bana looked pretty darn good.
Pretty boys aside, there were some pretty impressive scenes in the movie, as well as some effective use of camera angles. Thanks to our beloved censorship board, I can’t say I saw the movie in its entirety – something I’m not too pleased about, but it’ll have to do. As for the plot, well, it’s literally nothing new, though I wish they’d stuck faithfully to the original Greek myth. I’m not sure I like the Hollywood version of Achilles, but I suppose they just had to give Brad Pitt a girl. Now that doesn’t sound too bad in its own right, but seriously, did they have to make him die because of her too? Oops. We all know Achilles died right? But just in case, I won’t tell you how.
One thing I kinda liked though, is how there is no distinct good/bad binary in the movie. The Greeks were understandably outraged, the Trojans, rightfully incensed. And if one were to argue that King Agamnenon (is that how you spell his name?) was wrong in being so greedy for land, well, Paris shouldn’t have been greedy for another man’s wife in the first place. Or we could say Helen shouldn’t have been so silly as to run away with her young handsome upstart of a lover, knowing full well her fat, ugly husband would hunt them to the ends of the earth. Or King Priam should have listened to his sons’ advice, instead of giving in to what I suspect was a desire for (more) victory and glory. The finger-pointing never ends, and I shall not attempt to argue either way.
Orlando Bloom certainly looked the part of Paris, so much so that I almost didn’t remember Legolas when he picked up bow and arrow. Eric Bana looked, as I said at the beginning, pretty darn good. But Brad Pitt? I’m still trying to decide. Some say Helen was nowhere near worth fighting a war over, but then, what were they expecting? A Latino lass?
I thought it rather funny on the part of the writers to have Paris say this to Helen near the end, when he persuaded her to flee Troy without him, “I will see you again, either in this world or the next.” Ironic because if he’d thought of that when he was persuading her to run away with him, there wouldn’t have been the war.
Quote for thought: “What does every man want? More.”
Verdict: B+
