*** Official ALEXANDER Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

I managed to see a preview of this film this morning.

I'm trying to think of the best summary in quick short, because in 20 minutes, we go in to see the next film on our preview bill. (And I'm hoping it to be better). In a strange way, this movie reminds me of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"... not the story, but the visual imagery. The sheer concept of "Atlas Shrugged" the most powerful man unable to carry the weight of the world, aptly describes this film. This film is so weighed down in a convoluted story that it can't carry it's own weight.

The movie forms a narrative that for a large part, doesn't make sense. And then, an hour later, scenes that should have been present early within the film are added back in to almost no effect.

I'm talking about the killing of his father and his desire for vengence

This decision is a terrible one, because it leaves us with characters we can't understand and when it does finally happen on screen, we don't really care.

The acting in this film is terrible, and for all the hype about the nudity of certain actors.. we'll just say it's so bland that it's not worth admission either. Some scenes are downright offensive.. who thought of mixing in so much violence with sex sequences? Does anyone think this really portrays anything but crass?

The accents in the film are all sorts of wrong, with people sounding as though they come from Belgrade and sometimes sounding as though they are trying to be Indian (not American Indian

This movie is so bad I wanted to laugh along with it - like a Steve Reeves "Hercules" movie. But it doesn't achieve that either.

I sat next to a VP of a major national theater chain who walked out of the screening, yelled back to the camera person "Jesus, are they trying to kill us? Who thought this piece of s*** would make money? I've got much better things to do." (It should be noted: this is not a person who has any control over movies shown, displayed, etc. for this company and does not represent the viewpoint of the company nor any of it's other officers)

That about sums it up. (edit: wife thought I should put the entire comment above, as I received a phone call about this afterwards, so some people read this forum)

0 / :star: :star: :star: :star:

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Alexander". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick Sun]

I suggest the alternate title to "Alexander" be "Welcome to Master Over-acting Thespian Theatre".

OMG, I thought I was forewarned as to the suckitude that is this movie, but I was wrong. Yes, I stayed for all 3 hours, probably the minimal optimist in me playing a dastardly trick on me.

The film does do such a poor job in setting up the crew of supporting characters that nothing that happens towards the last hour resonates at all because they are just there to make Alexander's life miserable, but the viewer has no idea why they should care about the supporting characters, or their motivation besides the superficial one.

The accents are all over the place, Colin Farrell tries to flatten out his Irish accent, but it just comes off sounding Irish, but stilted. Angelina Jolie does more of a strange slavic/Russian type of accent that's so out of place, it's like she's from a different movie and stumbled onto the "Alexander" set by accident. I have no idea what Rosario Dawsom was going for with that accent she attempted to sound exotic and eastern.

The early battle scenes are pretty chaotic and nutty against a dusty backdrop, and the even nuttier battle scenes in the last hour in the woods is just bizarre and even more baffling in some respects.

The acting is so over-the-top and gag-inducing, the movie is overwrought, and overly long. The story is presented with little in terms of flow, and there is a flashback is so oddly placed, the structure of the narrative gets undermined. Since the supporting characters aren't developed all that well, the drive of such grand ambition by Alexander never gives the endeavor of conquering eastward the world any real true worth, it gets reduced to a "well, because he can" affirmation of his worth as a king.

Unless you need the sleep, stay away from this movie.

I give it 1.5 stars, or a grade of D+.

 

[John_Graz]

Patrick, DITTO to everything you just said. What a bomb !!!

Have you ever sat in a movie and you keep waiting for it to get better and it just kept getting worse the more you watched it !

I saw 2 specials on Discovery Channel on Alexander and The Making of Colin Farrell into Alexander last week and it mislead me into thinking the movie might be be good - WRONG !