marty888

Another disappointed moviegoer here - surprising, since I'm a big Stone fan, and a big fan of several of the actors.

But boring is .... boring. It starts with a bad script, continues with bad directorial choices, bad camera choices, bad acting choices - and for a movie lover, a bad ticket-buying choice.

It only took a few minutes into the movie to realize this was going to be a long, painful process: while Hopkins lectured on, I suddenly had the feeling that maybe I should be taking notes in case there was a pop quiz.

A lot of people are asking about comparsions with TROY - well, TROY isn't necessarily a better movie, but for me at least, it wasn't boring - and boring is the worst thing a movie can be.

Oh - on the plus side - nice elephants.

Tyler_Durden

True, and Troy also had a much better trailer. The ones for Alexander were just not interesting at all. In fact, as it turned out they displayed all the faults of the movie itself.

Tyler_Durden

That and mean-spirited. (I just watched Bad Boys 2).

bluesix

I think everyone that has posted so far has been a little too hard on ALEXANDER, so let me throw in my two cents to help balance it out.

I also gave a thumbs up to Troy earlier this year altho the tone of both films is so different its not worth trying to compare.

Where Troy seemed more like an action adventure, Alexander is much more introspective. At times I felt as if I was watching a documentary or some kind of Ken Burns piece on the History Channel with dramatic license. Nonetheless, I was compelled to watch the entire 2hr55mins without much effort. The story moves along. If the flashbacks in this bothered you, you probably shouldn't attempt anything more serious than Spongebob. I mean jeesh...try keeping up with '21 grams' people!

Seeing the movie definitely made me more interested in the man and the history surrounding his life...what did he really die from? Exactly how far did he conquer? How many 'alexandrias' did he found and what were the implications of the Hellenic influence on all of these conquered areas. And what's the deal with Hephaistion (sp?) Was he gay, bi or just really good friends?

The acting was campy but entertaining! With such over the top characters how else could it be? I thought everyone was fine and the accents seemed appropriate if not exactly authentic. Would you rather have everyone speaking with a British accent just so the large American audience recognizes it as 'someplace else'? How can you not love Angelina and her snakes! And Rosario and her knife dance.

Colin Farrell was great and it was great to see an actor brave enough to attempt a character so strong and charismatic yet so conflicted and emotional. Tom Cruise, forget about it. This guy is a real star! The nonsense about his blond dye job is stupid. His hair looked fine, at least they tried something.

The movie isn't perfect, I felt there was so much more that could have been shown and others seem to have wanted more of the battles. That's probably more a problem with the subject himself which was already pretty unlikely to be condensed into this form. I don't know what Oliver Stone brought to this. It seemed pretty generic in its direction and unlike anything else Ive seen by him. Yes, the color change during the elephant battle did remind me of Natural Born Killers but big deal.

As for Vangelis and the score I didnt even realize it was them. I know I liked it and at the end of the film even felt swept up in the emotion of the music during the credits. Its definitely not a 'feel-good' movie or even the kind that gets your adrenaline going like Troy. But it leaves you wanting more and definitely made me want to learn more about this remarkable man and his impact on the history in the parts of the world he helped shape.

riley_dude

Was that in a Blue state or a Red state?
To get up and leave the theatre because of a line about Homosexuality is just pathetic.

Dr. DVD

While I mostly loathed the movie, I agree. There a MANY more reasons to get up an leave than that line, believe me!

SMB-IL

What is the line? Spoiler it, but, what is it to make people get up and walk out??

The Infidel

I personally liked the take on the movie by the reviewer on CNN:

(paraphrasing) "This is a six-hour movie outing. You spend one hour getting to the theater and getting a seat, three hours watching the movie, and the next two hours angry at yourself for having wasted three hours on this movie."

Giles

Let me just add, that the new Regal theatres in Chinatown (here in DC) got a really ugly print of the film. The epic fight in the desert was riddled with nicks and marks resulting in destroying the overrall effect and cinematography. The audio was also screwed up, all the music seemed to be coming out of the left speaker, there was no surround sound. (It was in Dolby Digital sound cause all the reel changes never had an audio pop or click.)

As for the movie, I felt that like Troy this kind of movie and genre in general seems better suited to mini-series TV length - work on a better more detailed script (i.e characterization) and less on the obligatory OTT battle sequences. I also thought Angelina Jolie's acting was attrocious.

towbinaj

This was the worst movie I have seen in a long time. The story was boring, the pacing was slow, and I did not care for the characters. There was no depth behind any character or relationship. I went with 3 other people and we all wanted to walk out. We ended up staying because we wanted to see how he died.

I was excited to see this movie and had not read any reviews befoe going to the theater so I was not expecting such a dog. I am a big fan of Oliver Stone's and was very disappointed.

I like a wide range of movies as you can see from my collection (see sig) but this movie is one of the only movies that could not keep my attention. It was bad from the first scene.

This movie ranks in my bottom 5 of all time. 0 stars

BJacks

Weird, I had the exact same problem at the Lowes here in NYC. The audio got really really bad towards the end (kept going up and down, up and down), and there were very few surround effects. I also observed a lot of print burns.

Tarnower

Believe it or not, but the exact same thing happened down here in Pompano Beach, Fla. The theatre chain was Muvico.

Was this something intended by Stone? If so, I can't imagine the logic behind it.

Dr. DVD

Stone's logic is not something I think one should try to understand.