Alexander the Grate

Ackbar at NZ Pundit saw Alexander last night, as did I. Ackbar gives it 0.5/10.

I have it slightly higher, but not much better. Stats Girl said it was better than she expected, and I agree it wasn’t absolutely awful, but for me it totally failed in its core premise.

Alexander is meant to be “The Great” and they never came close to portraying him as this. Colin Farrell’s character just came across as a whiny snivelling unappealing idiot. Alexander was the second greatest general in the history of the world, he became a legend amongst men, and we never got to see why.

There were only two battle scenes and neither were a patch on say Gladiator or LOTR. I think the best scene was when actually Alexander tamed his horse. Angelia Jolie wasn’t bad as the evil mum.

Ironically the way they portrayed Alexander was bisexual wasn’t, in comparison to the rest of the film, done badly. They didn’t overdo it too much. I still laugh at how various self-appointed Greek spokespersons have decried the film as an insult to Greek manhood. Hello, what world are they in? There is a reason a certain sexual activity is known as doing it Greek style – rather too late to change that perception.

The film was three hours long, which means they should have had the time to actually make a great film. They failed pretty miserably. I love films set in ancient times, but this one just grates. Avoid it.