Troy

Went to see Troy Wednesday night with my mobile network's Orange Wednesdays offer (buy one ticket, get one free). So yesterday (ish... ok, 2 days ago now) was Troy, next Wednesday will be The Day After Tomorrow and some other time me and Jim will probably go see the new (darker, more grown up) Harry Potter movie. Helen (Jim's other half) isn't a fan of Harry.

It didn't cost me anything (bar the 10p text message to get a number for validation at the cinema), but I bought an ice-cream and some popcorn for Jim/Helen. So what did I think of the film? Some great fight scenes. Well, at least one, the one I'm thinking of being the one right near the start with Achilles involving a sword and a stab. Just one stab. A very well executed one at that, but just the one.

It was of epic proportions - effects; extras (although it depends how many of those were CGI'd); A-list names (Brad Pitt as Achilles, Sean Benn plays a big role, they probably blew the budget on Brad cos there's quite a few unknowns too); and length. It's a long old movie. Not quite LotR length, but plenty long enough. Long enough to notice it.

I liked it, but I wouldn't consider it an epic in the same light as LotR or say Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia. Biggest criticism: where was all the mythology? Did they wimp out of explaining Achilles strength? They didn't even make a point of the heel thing. Yeah, he gets shot there; but it isn't treated differently to any of the other damage that causes his demise. Everyone knows about his weak (or just mortal compared to the rest of him) heel - is that a reason for ignoring it? What about the source of the hiding-in-gift-horse idea? At least the right names are there and they didn't try to Americanise it in that way.

The movies I'm really looking forward to this summer are Spiderman 2 (finally saw a full trailer there) and Shrek 2 which should be awesome if it's even half as good as the first one. I am kinda looking forward to the new Harry, but it's not one I'm going to have to see soon.