Troy: Critic Reviews

A pageant long but not deep, noisy but not stirring, expensive but not sumptuous.

This big, expensive, intermittently campy example of Hollywood Homerism is desperate to be regarded as a classic. It isn't, but it's not so bad either.

A gripping, well-told adaptation of one of the oldest human dramas.

In a role that requires larger-than-life dimensions, [Pitt's] pretty terrific.

Offers several popcorn buckets' worth of good old-fashioned time at the movies.

What's missing from the experience is the poetry only a director can bring to an enterprise this sprawling.

As a war movie, Troy is strangely noncommittal -- the slaughter has a numb, ineffective, over-processed tone to it.

There are breathtaking vistas, taut political intrigues, dangerous romantic liaisons and one of the greatest wardrobes ever assembled for a costume drama.

Achilles is cute and all, and he knows how to fight -- he apparently learned his stuff from Hong Kong action movies -- but there's nothing dramatically compelling about the way he's presented here.

Mr. Petersen achieves a noble mood of dignity. Dignity is a forgotten virtue with many contemporary filmmakers, but he manages a majestic overview of both the glory and the folly of combat.

Thanks to Bana and O'Toole, Troy partakes in the power and pleasure of a story with such classic pedigree.

A fairly routine action picture with an advanced case of grandeuritis.

Harsh, serious, and both exhilarating and tragic, the right tonal combination for Homer.

The movie sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods, turns its heroes into action movie cliches and demonstrates that we're getting tired of computer-generated armies.

In a league with Hollywood's top historical epics, ancient or otherwise.

When the film focuses on the Trojans, it's splendid. But when Troy attempts to sort out the competing agendas of the Greeks, it drags.

The opening scene involves two thousand-man armies marching determinedly toward each other across a field the size of Rhode Island. And that's one of the more modest battles.

Riveting entertainment with a bit more on its mind and a sense of grandeur that's undeniable.

This hulking, flawed epic stomps about with furious thunder, managing to entertain even as director Wolfgang Petersen turns parts of Homer's epic poem into an afternoon soap opera.

It's massive, opulent, passionate and -- unlike most summer time-wasters -- surprisingly intelligent.

Despite a sensationally attractive cast and an array of well-staged combat scenes presented on a vast scale, Petersen's highly telescoped rendition of the Trojan War lurches ahead in fits and starts for much of its hefty running time, to OK effect.

The lackluster ensemble hired by the director is overwhelmed by the generally impressive sets and crowd scenes (aided by computer-generated images), by the task of playing epic heroes and by David Benioff's rambling, tone-deaf screenplay.

Epic in the best, old-fashioned sense.

Solid entertainment, true to the '50s formalism that so inspires its grand production design, ornate costumes, proverbial cast of thousands and sometimes painfully earnest dialogue.

Such a tame and timid epic -- it's all meek to me.