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Troy (HD DVD)
Warner Bros. // R // September 12, 2006 // Region 0
List Price: $28.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
It's an age old tale: boy meets girl. Girl runs off with boy. Girl's vengeful 
husband implores his megalomaniacal brother to go to war. Boy's cowardice and labido bring down one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. Gingerly scatter around 45 minutes of Brad Pitt posing in varying states of undress, and that's Troy condensed to a TV Guide-friendly blurb.
That would be an appallingly dismissive summary of Iliad, but not so much for Wolfgang "you vill be liking my movie vit der nine-figure budget" Petersen's Gladiator-cized-for-mass-market-consumption summer blockbuster version of Homer's epic poem. If you think of Achilles as just some guy with a heel and a Trojan as a brand of rubbers, congrats! You're the target demographic.
Troy condenses the sprawling, epic narrative -- the tale of a ten year war -- down to a few weeks. Divine intervention and any hint of the supernatural? Nope. Apollo and Poseidon are mentioned in a few lines of dialogue, but the gods never once appear on-screen and don't have any direct bearing on anything that happens in the movie, heavily altering the course of the familiar story. Guess polytheism doesn't play in Poughkeepsie. Troy follows the same predictable verse-chorus-verse rhythm of a Nickelback song, alternating between a few soapy subplots and massive battle sequences bolstered by not-entirely-convincing CGI.
Putting Iliad back on the shelf and holding off on any further comparisons for a few minutes, Troy's greatest flaw is that it really, really wants to be epic but never truly sells it. In part, it's because nearly every character in the movie is so one-dimensionally petty and self-serving, their pride and pettiness bringing about the fall of nations...and sparked by what? An anonymous Hollywood blonde devoid of personality and lacking any screen presence? An epic is defined by its characters, not by a couple of names on a marquee, a render farm in Palo Alto, and a tentpole summer release date. At least the meticulously choreographed battle sequences serve as a pleasant distraction, even if they fall short of clearing the bar set by Peter Jackson in his Lord of the Rings films.
Aside from the legions
of computer generated soldiers, there are only a few truly key characters in the movie: cowardly cockslinger Paris of Troy (Orlando Bloom), his princely brother Hector (Eric Bana, the lone genuine hero of the film), the doe-eyed Helen (Diane Kruger), Trojan king Priam (Peter O'Toole), power-mad Greek despot Agamemnon (Brian Cox), his scorned Spartan sibling Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), Achilles, a pec'ed-out killing machine with loyalty to no king (Brad Pitt), and the captured priestess who briefly humanizes him, Briseis (Rose Byrne, whose face looks like it could launch closer to a thousand ships than Diane Kruger's). Most of the actors elevate the middling material as much as anyone could, although the bland Bloom is stuck in neutral with only the lack of pointy ears distinguishing him from Legolas. Kruger is lovely but forgettable, and Pitt seems to be spending more time posing than acting in his overinflated, morally indecisive role.
If I shrug off my half-remembered obsession with Greek mythology, Troy is passable entertainment. Yes, several prominent roles are miscast, characterization is anemic, its battle sequences won't be burned into your retinas as they may have been in better-crafted historical epics, dialogue is often clunky, and the film fails to take advantage of its exceptional source material. As damning as that sounds, I still found Troy watchable in an undistinguished-summer-blockbuster sort of way. There's quite a gulf between "tolerable" and "good", though, and I'd suggest sticking with a rental if for some reason you're intrigued.
Video: Troy's scope visuals are somewhat uneven on this HD DVD, although I'm sure much of this is a result of the way the film was originally produced. Its largest, most epic shots -- especially those painted with a great deal of digital imagery -- don't exhibit the same level of detail as the rest of the movie, almost as if the CGI missed that final pass or two of refinement. The opening sequence in particular is unusually soft. The final fraction of a second in a couple of shots fairly early in the movie have a strange digital jitter that I'm not entirely sure how to describe. Less obviously manipulated shots look phenomenal (and this is still the majority of the film), boasting a striking level of fine detail and a sumptuously saturated palette. Not consistently impressive but hardly disappointing.
Audio: Alongside the usual assortment of dubs and subtitles,
Troy is among just a handful of HD DVDs to feature a lossless Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. The thundering score in particular shines, and the level of bass throughout is tight and devastating. I wouldn't label their use overall as truly exceptional, but the surround channels are expectedly immersive in the battle sequences. Coupled with the clarity of each and every element of the mix, all of this easily makes for the most aurally impressive experience I've enjoyed on my home theater to date.
Supplements: Although there are far fewer extras than I would've expected from such a high profile release, there's really not any filler either; it's all actually related to the making of the movie rather than seeming blatantly promotional or personality-driven. There are forty minutes' worth of featurettes that focus on the execution of the battle sequences, production designer Nigel Phelps constructing his vision of the legendary walled city of Troy, and a ten minute overview of the film's effects work. The home video release is more interested in Greek gods than Troy itself is, and "Gallery of the Gods" is a 3-D rendered overview of the heaviest hitters in Homer's Iliad. A theatrical trailer and a minute and a half of jokey pre-visualizations are also included. Its biggest selling point is the In-Movie Experience, executed more closely to the picture-in-picture video commentary of Constantine than the more ambitious The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Especially when watching a two and a half hour movie, I'd really like to be engaged by this sort of feature, but the material appears too sporadically to maintain my interest.
Conclusion: Troy is a forgettable retread of Gladiator that never seems to set its sights any higher than a shameless grab for summer blockbuster cash. Watchable but not particularly recommended. Rent It.
Standard image disclaimer: the pictures scattered around this review were lifted from the official movie site and don't necessarily reflect the appearance of this HD DVD.
husband implores his megalomaniacal brother to go to war. Boy's cowardice and labido bring down one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. Gingerly scatter around 45 minutes of Brad Pitt posing in varying states of undress, and that's Troy condensed to a TV Guide-friendly blurb. That would be an appallingly dismissive summary of Iliad, but not so much for Wolfgang "you vill be liking my movie vit der nine-figure budget" Petersen's Gladiator-cized-for-mass-market-consumption summer blockbuster version of Homer's epic poem. If you think of Achilles as just some guy with a heel and a Trojan as a brand of rubbers, congrats! You're the target demographic.
Troy condenses the sprawling, epic narrative -- the tale of a ten year war -- down to a few weeks. Divine intervention and any hint of the supernatural? Nope. Apollo and Poseidon are mentioned in a few lines of dialogue, but the gods never once appear on-screen and don't have any direct bearing on anything that happens in the movie, heavily altering the course of the familiar story. Guess polytheism doesn't play in Poughkeepsie. Troy follows the same predictable verse-chorus-verse rhythm of a Nickelback song, alternating between a few soapy subplots and massive battle sequences bolstered by not-entirely-convincing CGI.
Putting Iliad back on the shelf and holding off on any further comparisons for a few minutes, Troy's greatest flaw is that it really, really wants to be epic but never truly sells it. In part, it's because nearly every character in the movie is so one-dimensionally petty and self-serving, their pride and pettiness bringing about the fall of nations...and sparked by what? An anonymous Hollywood blonde devoid of personality and lacking any screen presence? An epic is defined by its characters, not by a couple of names on a marquee, a render farm in Palo Alto, and a tentpole summer release date. At least the meticulously choreographed battle sequences serve as a pleasant distraction, even if they fall short of clearing the bar set by Peter Jackson in his Lord of the Rings films.
Aside from the legions
of computer generated soldiers, there are only a few truly key characters in the movie: cowardly cockslinger Paris of Troy (Orlando Bloom), his princely brother Hector (Eric Bana, the lone genuine hero of the film), the doe-eyed Helen (Diane Kruger), Trojan king Priam (Peter O'Toole), power-mad Greek despot Agamemnon (Brian Cox), his scorned Spartan sibling Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), Achilles, a pec'ed-out killing machine with loyalty to no king (Brad Pitt), and the captured priestess who briefly humanizes him, Briseis (Rose Byrne, whose face looks like it could launch closer to a thousand ships than Diane Kruger's). Most of the actors elevate the middling material as much as anyone could, although the bland Bloom is stuck in neutral with only the lack of pointy ears distinguishing him from Legolas. Kruger is lovely but forgettable, and Pitt seems to be spending more time posing than acting in his overinflated, morally indecisive role. If I shrug off my half-remembered obsession with Greek mythology, Troy is passable entertainment. Yes, several prominent roles are miscast, characterization is anemic, its battle sequences won't be burned into your retinas as they may have been in better-crafted historical epics, dialogue is often clunky, and the film fails to take advantage of its exceptional source material. As damning as that sounds, I still found Troy watchable in an undistinguished-summer-blockbuster sort of way. There's quite a gulf between "tolerable" and "good", though, and I'd suggest sticking with a rental if for some reason you're intrigued.
Video: Troy's scope visuals are somewhat uneven on this HD DVD, although I'm sure much of this is a result of the way the film was originally produced. Its largest, most epic shots -- especially those painted with a great deal of digital imagery -- don't exhibit the same level of detail as the rest of the movie, almost as if the CGI missed that final pass or two of refinement. The opening sequence in particular is unusually soft. The final fraction of a second in a couple of shots fairly early in the movie have a strange digital jitter that I'm not entirely sure how to describe. Less obviously manipulated shots look phenomenal (and this is still the majority of the film), boasting a striking level of fine detail and a sumptuously saturated palette. Not consistently impressive but hardly disappointing.
Audio: Alongside the usual assortment of dubs and subtitles,
Troy is among just a handful of HD DVDs to feature a lossless Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. The thundering score in particular shines, and the level of bass throughout is tight and devastating. I wouldn't label their use overall as truly exceptional, but the surround channels are expectedly immersive in the battle sequences. Coupled with the clarity of each and every element of the mix, all of this easily makes for the most aurally impressive experience I've enjoyed on my home theater to date. Supplements: Although there are far fewer extras than I would've expected from such a high profile release, there's really not any filler either; it's all actually related to the making of the movie rather than seeming blatantly promotional or personality-driven. There are forty minutes' worth of featurettes that focus on the execution of the battle sequences, production designer Nigel Phelps constructing his vision of the legendary walled city of Troy, and a ten minute overview of the film's effects work. The home video release is more interested in Greek gods than Troy itself is, and "Gallery of the Gods" is a 3-D rendered overview of the heaviest hitters in Homer's Iliad. A theatrical trailer and a minute and a half of jokey pre-visualizations are also included. Its biggest selling point is the In-Movie Experience, executed more closely to the picture-in-picture video commentary of Constantine than the more ambitious The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Especially when watching a two and a half hour movie, I'd really like to be engaged by this sort of feature, but the material appears too sporadically to maintain my interest.
Conclusion: Troy is a forgettable retread of Gladiator that never seems to set its sights any higher than a shameless grab for summer blockbuster cash. Watchable but not particularly recommended. Rent It.
Standard image disclaimer: the pictures scattered around this review were lifted from the official movie site and don't necessarily reflect the appearance of this HD DVD.
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