Troy - 2004 * * * *

Fight for Honour, Fight for Love.

Although this film was desperately long (weighing in at over 3 hours) it really is worth the time once you get into it, however stopping half way through the movie to change DVD's for part 2 is a tad off-putting.

Brad Pitt leads a stellar and brilliant cast as Achilles - powerful, arrogant and dedicated to killing. While Brad Pitt is a pretty good actor in some things I didn't really feel like he was suited for this role. He's far too chiselled and 'American Pretty-boy-esque' to make it as a rugged and ruthless warrior. Half the time he looks like he's trying to model for a spray tan company. Added to that, he seems to have no conscience whatsover and there is no way that viewer's can really relate to him. He doesn't care about anyone enough to consider not killing them and blasts his way through battle stabbing and decapitating left right and centre. His accent was also ridiculous, nothing like a character from this film would actually sound and it put me off his character even more.

Orlando Bloom is also miscast for his role as Paris. At times he looks like a women and is so weak and gentle that he can't possibly have a chance making it as a warrior. He doesn't seem like a very independent character and this isn't much for us to work with.

Eric Bana is the strongest of the 3 main characters playing Paris's brother Hector and the only one who you could actually imagine realistically in that part. He suits the look that the director was trying to go for. He is also the most courageous, the most loyal and the most like a gentleman, for all these reasons he was my favourite character.

Other highlights included Peter O'Toole as Hector and Paris's father who gave such a heart-rendering performance that it was a shame he wasn't one of the lead characters, he acted his socks off.

Maybe the logistics of the story weren't totally accurate but you have to put that aside knowing it was exactly what the director had envisioned. I thought the graphics, the majority of the performances and the general feel of the film was sumptuous and it is well worth a watch.