So Nina and I went to see Troy last night. I really didn't care for the Iliad, though I liked it more than the Odyssey. I'm not much for epic poetry, and I have a hard time working through books where plot devices and solvency can be randomly conjured up by the gods. Though it is certainly one of the earliest works of its kind, viewed in modern day it seems overly dramatic and cheesy.

The movie was kind enough to do away with most of the intervention of the gods and cast it simply as the meddling by high priests in the affairs of their government. However, the cheesitude and melodrama was still present and the plot is left seeming wholly implausible.

I can live with that, as the Iliad (and Odyssey moreso) are wholly ridiculous, plot-wise anyway. However, the movie was plagued by bad technical elements of almost every kind. I found the direction to be largely non-existant, the editing to be sub-par, there were significant foley errors, prop errors (e.g. bending metal helmet), and assorted other errors (e.g. sunrise shown over the ocean - to the West). Some of the performances were distractingly bad (especially Patroclus). And the score... oh the score... it was... terrible. Maybe the idea with the score was to make it overly-dramatic and cheesy in the same vein as the book, but the result was that it was obnoxious and detracted from the movie instead of enhancing it.

I don't expect any movie to be perfect, but there were so many technical problems with this film that I found myself constantly reminded and unable to suspend my disbelief enough to get through the ham-handed plot.