Ahoy, squirts. Quint here... I saw TROY a couple days ago and I want to tell you folks about it. I have to be brief because I have a SHREK 2 screening in 7 hours and a bajillion stories to post, so since I am a mortal fool that needs sleep I'll have to be quick in my praising of the film.
Yep, all the mixed and negative reviews that I posted from all those college screenings had me worried, but after seeing the movie I have to wonder what crack those kids are smoking... or rather, what movie were they expecting? Because the movie I saw on Monday night kicked my ass... HARD.
Brad Pitt, who shouldered most of the criticism in the earlier reviews, dominates the film, playing the glory-seeking warrior Achilles. Fair warning, he's not playing Tyler Durden. I think that may have been a factor in some of the college kids's opinions of him in this movie because I frankly don't understand any of the criticisms leveled against the man's performance. He exudes charisma, his emotions aren't forced, but natural and easy. He's in control, he's badass and his accent never stuck out to me. That's quite a bit nitpicky in the first place, don't you think? Why was Pitt's non-accent a problem and Brian Cox's accent not? Shouldn't they all be speaking Greek anyway?
This film is huge, epic and perfectly cast. Perfectly. Orlando Bloom's Paris is a weak character, always dependant on his older brother, Hector (Eric Bana in yet another great performance), to be strong for him. He's also a bit blind to reality. He's young. Bloom plays him exactly as he should be played, which, unfortunately, makes him a character that's hard to like, but that shouldn't take away from what he did to make the character work. Although, I will say... expect a hint of Legolas toward the end of the movie... It took me out of the film a bit to see him wielding a bow and arrow, but damn if I didn't enjoy it.
Sean Bean is great as Odysseus. Pitt owns as Achilles, Brian Cox lives up to character actor god status in this film. He's brutal... a real guy you love to hate. Peter O'Toole... It's so great to see him on screen in a big way again...
Matter of fact, there is one scene in this film that grabbed me like nothing else I've seen in theaters this year. You'll know it when you see it... It's when Peter O'Toole meets with Brad Pitt and it's an amazing scene. I would go into it, but it gives away quite a bit and I'd rather you see the scene yourself, feel the emotion... experience the complete hollowing out of a character. It's a scene that will go down as one of the great scenes in cinema history... at least in my book.
So, the movie rules. Trust me. The effects are great, the acting is great, the male strutting is great, the cast is great, the score is great (for the most part... Harry and the gang went out to eat after the movie and we all talked about how ridiculous the "post Trojan Horse" music was... this kind of yodeling almost Arabic sounding woman screeching a solo... not to mention a terrible, terrible end credits song).
The only negative thing I can think to say about the actual film is there are some reaction shots that don't quite work peppered here and there, but if that's the only negative thing I can say about the movie then... well, shit. I guess it's a failure then, right?
At the end of the day, this movie kicked my ass. There's some space between this film and Homer's work, but my girlfriend is as rabid about that kind of stuff as you can get and she loved the movie just as much as I did. They play with it in a very interesting way, especially with Achilles. The way they show how the myth of Achilles passes on past the events of this movie is actually really subtle and well handled.
Anyway, I better go off and do some posts and get to sleep so I can be somewhat awake during SHREK 2 tomorrow. I highly recommend this film. It's as big and entertaining as you'd hope it'd be, but with a lot more character, soul and subtly than you might expect.
-Quint
