Post by Damien on Nov 28, 2004 13:48:52 GMT -5
Alexander
Starring: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson
Director: Oliver Stone
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Christopher Kyle, Oliver Stone,
Rating: R
Running Time: 173 minutes
Under the direction of Oliver Stone and joined by an all star cast Collin Farrell is Alexander the Great, the Macedonian ruler who conquered most of the known world by the time he was 25.
Alexander could have been a great epic along the lines of such films as Braveheart, Gladiator, and the more recent Troy. Unfortunately it wasn't. The story of Alexander is a truly intriguing tale and Alexander was a larger than life individual. Yet Stone did a very poor fumbling job at telling it.
Much of Alexander's life is just skimmed over. In one scene his succession to the throne comes in to question yet within a few minutes of the film he is King and well in to his invasion of Persia. Some of the holes are filled in later in the film but by then I was to bored with the film and waiting for it to end. Along with skimming over entire chapters of Alexander's life far to much is focused on more minor details. To much time is wasted on his relationship with his boyhood friend and lover Hephaistion (Jared Leto) as well as his peculiar relationship to his wife Roxane (Rosario Dawson) and his love hate relationship with his mother Olympias (Angelina Jolie).
So many of Alexander's greatest exploits are completely omitted such as his role in his father's conquest of the other Greek states, and his victory at Tyre which is arguably his greatest military achievement. The two battle scenes we do see are good but nowhere near as spectacular as they could have been. Many of the things that truly helped develop Alexander's character are also omitted or barely explained. Alexander's march to the temple and oracle of Zeus-Ammon, in the Libyan desert where he was told that he was the son of the God and would conquer the world was only slightly touched upon and no mention was made of his untying of the Gordian Knot which foretold his conquest of all of Asia.
The all star cast didn't do much to save this film. The acting by virtually all the key players is over the top and the dialouge is to overly dramatic and long winded. Farrell's portrayal of Alexander is often far to emotional making the great king appear to overly sensitive as well as down right weak.
There is also some inaccuracies between the film and history especially towards the end of the film. These inaccuracies are minor and would have been looked over if it wasn't for all the other problems with the film.
In the end Alexander could have been great but alas it wasn't.
I give Alexander ^^ out of a possible ^^^^^Fangs
Damien
FL Branch Head of ShadowLore, Shadows_of_Florida,
Aim: Strawdead Yahoo: Balderloge
groups.yahoo.com/group/ShadowLore/ groups.yahoo.com/group/Shadows_of_Florida/
Organizer for Tampa Bay Vampires
vampires.meetup.com/76/
groups.yahoo.com/group/TampaBayVampires/
Starring: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson
Director: Oliver Stone
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Christopher Kyle, Oliver Stone,
Rating: R
Running Time: 173 minutes
Under the direction of Oliver Stone and joined by an all star cast Collin Farrell is Alexander the Great, the Macedonian ruler who conquered most of the known world by the time he was 25.
Alexander could have been a great epic along the lines of such films as Braveheart, Gladiator, and the more recent Troy. Unfortunately it wasn't. The story of Alexander is a truly intriguing tale and Alexander was a larger than life individual. Yet Stone did a very poor fumbling job at telling it.
Much of Alexander's life is just skimmed over. In one scene his succession to the throne comes in to question yet within a few minutes of the film he is King and well in to his invasion of Persia. Some of the holes are filled in later in the film but by then I was to bored with the film and waiting for it to end. Along with skimming over entire chapters of Alexander's life far to much is focused on more minor details. To much time is wasted on his relationship with his boyhood friend and lover Hephaistion (Jared Leto) as well as his peculiar relationship to his wife Roxane (Rosario Dawson) and his love hate relationship with his mother Olympias (Angelina Jolie).
So many of Alexander's greatest exploits are completely omitted such as his role in his father's conquest of the other Greek states, and his victory at Tyre which is arguably his greatest military achievement. The two battle scenes we do see are good but nowhere near as spectacular as they could have been. Many of the things that truly helped develop Alexander's character are also omitted or barely explained. Alexander's march to the temple and oracle of Zeus-Ammon, in the Libyan desert where he was told that he was the son of the God and would conquer the world was only slightly touched upon and no mention was made of his untying of the Gordian Knot which foretold his conquest of all of Asia.
The all star cast didn't do much to save this film. The acting by virtually all the key players is over the top and the dialouge is to overly dramatic and long winded. Farrell's portrayal of Alexander is often far to emotional making the great king appear to overly sensitive as well as down right weak.
There is also some inaccuracies between the film and history especially towards the end of the film. These inaccuracies are minor and would have been looked over if it wasn't for all the other problems with the film.
In the end Alexander could have been great but alas it wasn't.
I give Alexander ^^ out of a possible ^^^^^Fangs
Damien
FL Branch Head of ShadowLore, Shadows_of_Florida,
Aim: Strawdead Yahoo: Balderloge
groups.yahoo.com/group/ShadowLore/ groups.yahoo.com/group/Shadows_of_Florida/
Organizer for Tampa Bay Vampires
vampires.meetup.com/76/
groups.yahoo.com/group/TampaBayVampires/