Odysseus: [to Achilles] "War is young men dying and old men talking. Ignore the politics."

I went and saw the movie Troy last night. Yes, it has been out for a while but I only just saw it. So this could have been a great movie but the serious problem I had with it was the casting. So Mr. Edward Mercieca and Ms. Lucinda Syson, the casting directors, I have to ask...What the hell were you thinking?

To be fair I wonder if it's possible to make a movie without the audience questioning a certain character because they associate that actor with another movie? Like Tom Hanks...He seems to be able to get away from the type-casting, sort of (I mean I never thought that was Forrest Gump stranded on a desert Island in Castaway...). It drove me nuts during this movie, I kept hearing BoG in my head going.."I liked this movie better when they called it 'braveheart'...."

First off, I believed Brad Pitt in it, I did, but I saw a lot of that other character "Tristan Ludlow" he played in Legend's of The Fall mixed into his Achilles. That crazy Mofo Tristan was a better Achilles though, just add a lunge or two. I have to admit all the quick, thrusting lunges Achilles did were great...

Moving on to Legolas. The elves really let him down in this one. I couldn't get Paris separated from Legolas. When I saw Paris practicing his aim on that dummy I just laughed and thought, 'bah...as if Legolas needs to practice.' Then in the end Achilles just pulls Paris' arrows out of his chest like a hot knife through butter. Seriously...Would the Elves make such crap arrows?? I think not. Also we learned in 'Braveheart'' that you don't just yank on the arrow piercing your chest, you break the arrow off and keep fighting with it lodged in your lung. It was Hamish Campbell and his Da, his cranky old father, who taught us that. And speaking of those two characters, Mr. Edward Mercieca and Ms. Lucinda Syson chose to basically use all the characters from Braveheart and recast them terribly in Troy. So through the movie I'm all..."As if Hamish (Brendan Gleeson who played King Menelaus) would fight against his own Father" (James Cosmo who played Glaucus in Troy and The old Campbell in Braveheart). It would have been great had they cast them Father and son again. But noooo...

Also Brian Cox who played Agamemnon, played Argyle Wallace in Braveheart too...Frick it is like some sort of flashback..The Wallace Clan circa 1193 B.C.

All I can say is that is what I was thinking about instead of watching the movie. So I call it bad casting. Or just chalk it up to the fact that I have seen way too many movies (and Braveheart, specifically, about 20 times). Speaking of type-casting...Oh Joy!...Canoe Reeves in another movie. I saw the trailer for that last night too...looks silly. He plays "an irreverent supernatural detective". LOL!

I liked Troy all in all, and I actually learned something. I also realized that I really did learn something in all those classics classes I took last year. Yay, Dr. Jan McEwan, my classics Professor, I actually learned something in your class! Although I was disappointed that they didn't feature the Archimedes' Claw even though that's from earlier (like 214 BCE), but I did a whole paper on that once, and it would have been cool to see what Hollywood could create.

My favorite part of Troy was the rolling balls of fire. Cool!