Regarding Troy

(Beware spoilers)

The good:

The acting: I couldn't pick out a bad actor in the bunch, and some definitely stood out as fantastic: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Sean Bean as Odysseus, Eric Bana as Hector, and Peter O'Toole as Priam. Peter O'Toole was especially impressive in the scene where he goes to Achilles to get Hector's body back.

The credits: Why the credits, you ask? Because Josh Groban sang the closing song! Holy crap, how could I have not known about this ahead of time? Now I need to go buy the soundtrack, dammit.

The battles: Fantastic choreography.

The special effects: I don't think there was any point where the special effects looked especially... Effect-y. Everything blended pretty seamlessly.

The bad:

Plot changes: Now correct me if I'm wrong, but in The Illiad, didn't:

• Paris die near the end
• Achilles was killed by Paris' arrow before Priam asked for Hector's body (hence giving him a bargaining chip)
• Ajax killed himself after Achilles died
• Hector took Achilles' armor from Patroclus, and so
• Achilles had to get new armor from Hephaestus through his mother Thetis
• Menalaus survived to take Helon back
• Agamemnon survived and was later killed by Klytemnestra

? Those are the plot points I recall (though not in that order), but those are not the things that happened in the movie. I can forgive changing the story around for the sake of the movie, but then it shouldn't claim to be based on The Illiad...

I'd give it an A-. Not perfect, but very good. Definitely worth seeing at the cinema.