Opening Day Review of "Alexander"

OK, the movie was good, but long. You come into movies with certain expectations and sometimes you get things you didn't expect. You expect a movie called "Alexander" would talk talk about the Great's conquests when really it speaks more of his personal life. As many historians know, Alexander the Great was a famed bisexual: he had 3 wives, his long-time male lover Hephastion, and has enjoyed eunuchs. This was subtle when alluded to in several parts.

Alexander was portrayed as a great visionary. He wanted to keep going but his army wanted to go home. He was just a dreamer in a wrong time. The Greeks were willing to accept the Persian's defeat and go home while Alexander was not willing to accept the boundaries of the known world. This quest prolonged the movie to its 3 hour running time. The movie's end feels tragic and felt annoying to me because of the Greek's attitude.

There was another annoyance: the subtitling. Many times in the film the location is subtitled in the bottom-left corner, and I mean many, many, many times. Some are implicit and not necessary, whereas other scenes may have needed it.

I have to give credit to several actors: Angelina Jolie looked great as a Greek queen. Colin Farrell was good in his role, but had some awkward scenes. Also the kid who played young Alexander really looked like a young Colin Farrell.

This movie would get more points with me if it had a solid soundtrack. (I've decided to make this the topic of my next Composition paper) The movie was good but needed to be accented with an emotional score. There were no themes or musical motifs and it was lacking at scenes. This reminds me of Terminator 3 when they didn't include the T2 soundtrack in any way (probably due to copyright). A better, more apparent soundtrack would boost this movies score with me.

Aside from this, it is an enjoyable movie to see, just make sure you have the time to see it, because it is 3 hours.

My rating: 7 out of 10
DVD-worthy: Not for $20; $15, maybe