Troy

Love, Honour, Loyalty and Greed are the four main themes running through this year's blockbuster Troy.

With an all star cast Homer's legendary tale of Achillies and the city of Troy is more than just a mere history lesson. The makers have very cleverly avoided portraying Achilles (Brad Pitt) as a typical movie superhero, but have shown him as an amazingly skilful fighter, so skilful that he just doesn't get hurt (until his downfall obviously).

The casting was fantastic; they managed to get the relatives looking extremely related. Watch out for a younger version of Brad Pitt in his on screen cousin Garrett Hedlund.  The Princes Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom) also looked great as brothers.  However I have never seen worse acting by Orlando Bloom.


I have never thought much of him but in this film he was really shown up by the incredible actors surrounding him, it was just embarrassing to watch.  However Sean Bean did a fantastic job as a grovelling King and the women in this film were  a vision of beauty; Saffron Burrows (Hectors Wife), Rose Byrne (Achillies bird) and Diane Kruger (Helen of Troy - the lady that started the battle!).

Some feminists may get a little uptight whilst watching this film as there is lots of emphasis on them being the "wives" etc however watch carefully and there may be some reprieve...

The direction of the movie is pretty good throughout, but I was a little disappointed with its inconsistency in the huge battle scenes, Petersen switches between a very uncomfortable jerkiness which ruins any chance the audience had of determining which side was which, to an incredibly smooth filming technique in other battle scenes, which I preferred.  Although, all credit to the guy, when it came to the one on one fights, they where absolutely awesome. In the one between Hector and Achillies you can almost hear Hector saying "I know your game" as Achillies desperately tries his Jump and Stab technique that had worked for him up until then.

This film is definitely one to see, however if anyone has seen the classic Eddie Izzard classic sketch about Achillies and the city of Troy, you will not be able to get Eddie Izzards voice out of your head! Well maybe you could but I certainly couldn't!  Especially when the magnificent Trojan Warhorse was being pulled into the city, which was phenomenally recreated in this movie.

I recommend going to the toilet before you sit down and do not drink too much throughout as you definitely will not be wanting to get up and miss anything!

At Cinemas from Friday 21st May and probably will be showing for a good few weeks.  Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Perfect Storm). 163 mins. Rated 15.