Overview

Troy is base on the Greek Mythology story of the city of Troy that fell after letting a giant Wooden Horse inside their city. As night fell, the Greeks came out of the Wooden Horse and slay the Trojan men that were sleeping and burned the city down. It's a story that most of today's students learn about in history class and told through the centuries of time. Whether or not this story is base on historical events or fiction is still debated on today. The movie Troy started at the beginning of the event that led to the Trojan War and perhaps the cause of the Trojan War. Prince Paris of Troy kidnapped or took the beautiful Helen, wife of King Menelaus, back to Troy. This ignited the war between the Greeks and the Trojans as Menelaus listed the aid of his brother King Agamemnon who united the Greeks Armies into a full assault on Troy. Leading the assault on Troy was said to be the greatest warrior of their time, Achilles. However Troy is not so easily taken as it is defended by mighty Prince Hector, the brother of Paris. As years past and the war rages on, the movie focuses on the final epic battle between Hector and Achilles and the introduction of the Wooden Horse that would lead to the fall of Troy. Two worlds will go to war for honor and power. Thousands will fall in pursuit of glory. And for love, a nation will burn to the ground is the story of Troy.

Good

What makes this movie good is a combo of everything. The story, the cast of actors and actresses, the special effects, musical scores, and the epic battle sequences all come together as one to make this movie a good enjoyable movie. The story is written exceptionally well and that's due to the fact that it's just not one particular kind of story, it's an action story, a romance story, and a drama story all roll into one. That made the story entertaining to almost all the types of audiences out there. There's something that the female audience will enjoy and there's something that the male audience will enjoy. The cast of actors and actresses play their part very well to almost near perfection. While Brad Pitt maybe the biggest name star in this movie, the overall cast presentation makes them an all star cast due to their strong performances on each of the characters that they portrayed. I could not find any fault within any of the characters seen in the movie because they are seem so real life like that in sense it sort of made me think that's how these characters really were like back in the days of the ancient times. The special effects and the rendering of the city of Troy really help bring to movie to life. Seeing thousand of ships and thousand of men marching on Troy is just awe inspiring and breathtaking. The fighting sequences, especially those between Hector and Achilles was very well choreographed that made watching the two men fight an enjoyable treat. And to top things off, Troy has one of the best movie soundtracks of them all. Each event sequence or scene is backed by a killer musical score that delivers the importance of the. It's been a long time since I found a movie where almost every part of the movie is good and strong with little faults in them.

Bad

Like with any movie from Hollywood base on some historical event, Hollywood tend to exaggerate things a bit more to give it some better entertaining drama to the overall movie. Troy is no different from this. To say that the Trojan War and the characters involve in the Trojan War were base in historical fact in an understatement and exaggeration in itself. The events of the Trojan War is really base on Greek Mythology so in itself we don't really know what is true and what isn't true from the Greek Mythology. Heck, we still don't know for a historical fact that there really was a Trojan War or a Trojan Horse. That's the funny thing about Greek Mythology is that you have to slice away the so called exaggeration and involvement of the gods and the storytelling to find some sort of historical facts in it. This movie tries to do that, which is slice away some of the more silly and exaggeration of the gods and the story events involving the gods to bring it more to the realism or possible realism of actual possible events. However it also has a problem with leaving certain events and characters out from the whole Trojan War events from the Greek Mythology. The movie took the entire Trojan War event in Greek Mythology and cut it down to a 2 hour event. This in itself is sort of sad thing to do because the movie audience won't be able to get a full overview of what the Trojan War really is about. By watching the movie, you had no idea that the Trojan War lasted for years. You get the general impression from the movie that the war was only fought by a few battles and not many battles that lasted for years. The Trojan War wasn't just about the city of Troy but also the cities around Troy. Again you really can't tell by watching this movie because it sort of cut everything away and just focus on the siege and fall of the city of Troy for the duration of the 2 hour movie. Other events were also twisted to give the movie more drama. The showdown between Hector and Achilles was change from the Greek Mythology in the movie. So yes, from a movie stand point, the changes were good to make it more entertaining and give a much more focus on the Trojan War event within a short time frame of 2 hours but it's bad in a sense that the audiences aren't aware of how events are actually unfolded base on the actual Greek Mythology. You get to see what the Trojan War was about but you don't get to see what it really was about.

Bonus

The Bonus materials weren't as good as what it could have offered. You get an inside look on how some of the epic Troy battle sequences were made, an inside look on how some of the stunning visual effects were done, a small documentary of the actual ruins of the city of Troy, and a gallery of the greek gods. An inside look on how the battle sequences and special effects were done was the only thing that I found to be worth looking over. The documentary on unearthing the real city of Troy wasn't too informative and the gallery of the greek gods was pretty useless due to the fact that the movie barely mention Greek gods much other than Apollo. What should have been added as part of a bonus is a documentary of the actual events of the Trojan War base on the Greek Mythology and not base on the script writing of the screenwriters from the movie. This way it gives the audience a chance to see the difference between the events in the movie and the events in the Greek Mythology. All in all, the second DVD bonus disc isn't something you really would like to spend your time on unless you have nothing better to do.

Final Analysis

Like with any other movie, the question that needs to be answer at the end of the movie is, "Did you enjoy it?" The answer should be, "Yes", for most of you. There are many factors involved in deciding on whether or not you enjoyed a movie. Did you enjoy the story? Did you enjoy the cast of characters in the movie? Did the ending touch you emotionally in any way, whether it made you happy or sad? Anytime at the end of the movie where you are left to the point of still thinking about the movie then it's a given fact that you enjoyed it somewhat. If you didn't do an overview of the movie in your thoughts after you finish watching it then chances are you didn't care enough about the movie to give it any thought. In the case of Troy, the movie definitely made me think about the history of the Trojan War and the characters involved in the Trojan War and whether or not the Trojan War actually took place in the history of this world. This was a good emotional roller coaster ride and even after watching it the first time, I wanted to go back and watch it a second time because it got to the point where I really cared about the characters and the story being told to us that I wanted to see them come to life again for the second time. This all comes down to a movie that is great at capturing the hearts and imagination of its audience. If you're looking for a good 2 hours movie base on some historical facts mixed in with some Hollywood entertaining drama then this movie is it. An excellent movie that you can sit with your better half to watch it together as a couple. I dare say that in my opinion this is the best movie of 2004.