Troy

Hello once again audience! (Tobuscus fan)
I'm actually really excited about this post because I haven't done a mythological post before and i love this film, I am very passionate towards Greek mythology because its interesting and Greek gods are awesome! So lets crack on!

If you don't already know, Troy is based on the infamous story that's surrounds the young prince of Troy, Paris who falls in love with Helen but she's married to Menelaus. When she runs away war is declared and it gives Agamemnon a perfect excuse to conquer Troy so that he can control the entirety of the Greek force but Troy still stands. So his army is huge plus he has Achilles who fights for no one but himself in an attempt to become a legend, this leads to some pretty awesome scenes.
whilst the enemy control Achilles, the Trojan army also have a hero, Prince Hector who is a great leader and he will do anything to protect his home and family from death.

The first thing that stood out was the cast, you have Brad Pitt as the superior Achilles who is a phenomenal fighter, Eric Bana who plays Prince Hector, the protector of Troy. Then we have Orlando Bloom who plays Paris, Brian Cox as Agamemnon and the late Peter O'toole who plays King Priam. So the cast was great, if your a fan of any of them then you'll enjoy the film, I in fact like them all so everything was brilliant. The 2 main characters (Pitt and Bana) were my favourite.

We get a really nice introduction to the characters immediately and if your familiar with the mythology you'd recognise some of the character attributes although a lot of things were changed for example:

• Achilles and Patroclus were cousins but its been speculated that they were lovers
• The brute known as Ajax, killed by Hector in the film actually commits suicide after killing a herd of sheep  
• Paris seduces Helen instead of them romantically falling in love

The film isn't true to the actual story which is a shame but it is still a very good film, I think what would have made it better was to focus on Achilles origin perhaps, the true story behind his weakness and his strength. I think that would have added a lot of depth to the film but what it does do which I felt was very rare is that you can't pick sides. So Achilles doesn't fight for a side and it turns out he is actually a nice person apart from when he kills people, Paris is actually in the wrong for taking Menelaus's wife but he did it out of "true love", Hector is just epic so the real enemy in many ways is Agamemnon. Along the way you get a few surprises and your not sure whether to feel glad or sad, lets just say only a few live "happily ever after" unless your familiar with the story then you know that Paris is killed by Philoctetes who killed him with the bow of Heracles (INTERESTING STUFF!!!)

Anyway! the main highlight of this film is of course the legendary battle between the Trojans and Greek army, especially when Achilles enters the battle things get serious and the uncut edition is brutal! the fight at the trojan gate is brilliant because there are thousands of men and the fighting itself is brilliantly choreographed however it mainly focuses on the main characters who fight such as Hector and Achilles but my favourite part is the mass arrow shoot out, hundreds of men line up on the trojan wall and fire arrows and it awesome!
The battle I cannot forget is the decider between the two lions, Achilles and Hector. This fight scene is so brilliantly choreographed and it really shows off Achilles abilities as well as Hector who struggles a lot during, Achilles obviously tries to pull off his signature move, this may be my favourite 1 on 1 fight because I love sword fights don't ask me why but they just look brilliant on stage especially when you have 2 legends fighting to the death with no one else around just them to, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. One particular part that stood out was a shot of Achilles pure concentration plus his amazingly designed sword vibrating and then he suddenly kicks ass!

I give Troy a 7/10, I was a bit gutted it didn't stick to the original story however the film was still a great take on the famous story but again I wanted Achilles character to be explored more as in origins ect. The characters are brilliantly introduced, The costume work is awesome and the fighting is spectacular its similar to the giant fights from Lord of the Rings. If you like Greek mythology then this is the film for you, if you like Brad Pitt and wish to see him topless then this is the film for you or if you simply love a good historic film with swords and films then you better watch it ASAP. If not then... why are you still reading :)

That's it for today!
I hope you enjoyed and I do encourage you to watch this film, its mega cheap now so run down to HMV or something.
Thanks for reading
Until next time :)

"You won't have eyes tonight; you won't have ears or a tongue. You will wander the underworld blind, deaf and dumb, and all the dead will know; this is Hector. The fool who thought he killed Achilles"