Movie review - "Troy" (2003) **

This is one that got away - there was plenty of money flying around, the film believably deals with the issue of Greek Gods by having characters act because of their faith rather than the fact that the Gods exist, and Brad Pitt's Achilles and the Greeks are often unsympathetic. But it blows it by changing the basics of the story - killing Agamemnon at Troy, Achilles surviving to the Wooden Horse having Paris kill Achilles... that's just cheating and does the story no service. Paris and Helen lack passion, though Peter O'Toole is ideal. Eric Bana is wooden, though all he's required to do is be decent; Brian Cox and Brendan Glesson add some spark and Sean Bean is a perfect Odysseus. This was one of those films I didn't mind at the time when watching it but as time has passed it has become more and more irritating in the mind.