Guess what I just saw
May. 15th, 2004 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterRight. Troy.
I think I'll just call it "Iliad on fast-forward".
First, I learned something about myself: I am a right and proper Iliad geek. I guess it helped that Greek mythology was my first love, back when I was six years old - I have dozens of books about it; my first realistic drawing was Bellerophon taming Pegasus. I didn't think I remembered that much.
Right. So insert rant over messing up Homer here. Especially the bit about hello, ten-year war?? And right down to the fact Achilles was supposed to put the rope through holes in Hector's heels.
So, apart from being pissed off about that. I didn't like several portrayals - Agamemnon was too... merchant. Not royal enough, even in his megalomania. He's Atreides, there should be more haughtiness and tragedy to him.
Andromache was a wet hen, which was made all the more visible by the fact she plays all her scenes against Hector. Oh, and she looked way too thin >_<
Which brings us to, yes. The good stuff, Hector among it. Eric Bana was very mmm, and his character featured the one alteration I liked - they didn't make him run three times around the city while fleeing from Achilles. I always felt that was a discord in Homer's account, a way for him to drive home the point that yes, Achilles is lightyears ahead of everyone else. Altogether, good acting (loved that bit where Priam disagrees with him on whether to attack, and Patrocles' death scene) and good character concept.
Paris and Helen were not as annoying as I thought they'd be, and all the more so near the end, when both finally got some balls. I can believe the Helen character development, and Diane Kruger's a surprisingly decent actress - which helped, since she had to carry all her scenes with Orlando. They hit on a good concept with Orli; all his scenes, it's the other people who are doing the emoting and he stands there looking confused, except when he's supposed to look like a scared chicken. He can do that.
Odysseus was as good as I expected him to be. All the time he looked like he was thinking "What the hell am I doing here with those morons??" which is exactly the impression he should be making. It was a great idea to make him do the movie's voice-over, too: Sean Bean's voice can do wonders. Hm. Odyssey, anyone?
Achilles' love interest angle: I expected to be royally pissed off about this, between the "cousin" thing, a total newbie in the role, and the ending. That was most definitely not the case. Garrett Hedlund was very fun indeed; you could see he was tense in important scenes, but it worked well with his character. And I do not think you could put in the line before the landing otherwise *snorts* I was also surprised to like Briseis - she's a good actress, and they wrote her character in a totally non-annoying way. Had to be the Cassandra bits she got as well. I'm afraid I'm now a movie!Achilles/Briseis shipper ^_~
Which brings me to movie!Achilles. I'm not a crazy fangirl of Brad Pitt, nor a large fan of his looks. But HOT DAMN can he act if he wants to. His Achilles had this crazy intensity, this madness that made my disbelief evaporate whenever he was onscreen. Inhuman, crazy, compelling, and toned down enough to be subtle. Ish. And the uber-toned but not too muscled body (with large quantities of naked onscreen time) didn't hurt.
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applegnat? I totally see the Maedhros comparison. Like, straight.)
I didn't mind losing the gods angle - it made sense the way it was. The ending was so-so; they hammed it up a lot with Agamemnon killing Priam, random Eneas cameo, Achilles looking for Briseis like some thirties Hollywood dashing lead. But the death scene was good.
End verdict? If this was an original movie, something like Gladiator, I'd be going ^________^ With it being the Iliad, it's a :/ tending towards :) Except for Achilles, Hector and Odysseus.
I think I'll just call it "Iliad on fast-forward".
First, I learned something about myself: I am a right and proper Iliad geek. I guess it helped that Greek mythology was my first love, back when I was six years old - I have dozens of books about it; my first realistic drawing was Bellerophon taming Pegasus. I didn't think I remembered that much.
Right. So insert rant over messing up Homer here. Especially the bit about hello, ten-year war?? And right down to the fact Achilles was supposed to put the rope through holes in Hector's heels.
So, apart from being pissed off about that. I didn't like several portrayals - Agamemnon was too... merchant. Not royal enough, even in his megalomania. He's Atreides, there should be more haughtiness and tragedy to him.
Andromache was a wet hen, which was made all the more visible by the fact she plays all her scenes against Hector. Oh, and she looked way too thin >_<
Which brings us to, yes. The good stuff, Hector among it. Eric Bana was very mmm, and his character featured the one alteration I liked - they didn't make him run three times around the city while fleeing from Achilles. I always felt that was a discord in Homer's account, a way for him to drive home the point that yes, Achilles is lightyears ahead of everyone else. Altogether, good acting (loved that bit where Priam disagrees with him on whether to attack, and Patrocles' death scene) and good character concept.
Paris and Helen were not as annoying as I thought they'd be, and all the more so near the end, when both finally got some balls. I can believe the Helen character development, and Diane Kruger's a surprisingly decent actress - which helped, since she had to carry all her scenes with Orlando. They hit on a good concept with Orli; all his scenes, it's the other people who are doing the emoting and he stands there looking confused, except when he's supposed to look like a scared chicken. He can do that.
Odysseus was as good as I expected him to be. All the time he looked like he was thinking "What the hell am I doing here with those morons??" which is exactly the impression he should be making. It was a great idea to make him do the movie's voice-over, too: Sean Bean's voice can do wonders. Hm. Odyssey, anyone?
Achilles' love interest angle: I expected to be royally pissed off about this, between the "cousin" thing, a total newbie in the role, and the ending. That was most definitely not the case. Garrett Hedlund was very fun indeed; you could see he was tense in important scenes, but it worked well with his character. And I do not think you could put in the line before the landing otherwise *snorts* I was also surprised to like Briseis - she's a good actress, and they wrote her character in a totally non-annoying way. Had to be the Cassandra bits she got as well. I'm afraid I'm now a movie!Achilles/Briseis shipper ^_~
Which brings me to movie!Achilles. I'm not a crazy fangirl of Brad Pitt, nor a large fan of his looks. But HOT DAMN can he act if he wants to. His Achilles had this crazy intensity, this madness that made my disbelief evaporate whenever he was onscreen. Inhuman, crazy, compelling, and toned down enough to be subtle. Ish. And the uber-toned but not too muscled body (with large quantities of naked onscreen time) didn't hurt.
(
applegnat? I totally see the Maedhros comparison. Like, straight.)I didn't mind losing the gods angle - it made sense the way it was. The ending was so-so; they hammed it up a lot with Agamemnon killing Priam, random Eneas cameo, Achilles looking for Briseis like some thirties Hollywood dashing lead. But the death scene was good.
End verdict? If this was an original movie, something like Gladiator, I'd be going ^________^ With it being the Iliad, it's a :/ tending towards :) Except for Achilles, Hector and Odysseus.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-18 02:38 am (UTC)*needs to do more Hector icons*