(no subject)

[rymenhild]

I attended a free preview showing of Alexander tonight.

Thoughts of the not-particularly spoilery variety:

1. I could stare at the sets and costumes forever. (This does not mean that there was anything wrong with the occasional absence of costume.)
2. Angelina Jolie is actually good at playing a beautiful mad fifty-year-old woman.
3. There is no nonsense about Achilles and Patroclus being cousins in this film. Alexander's love for Hephaistion is completely surtextual, as is his lust for Bagoas.
4. The filmmakers should have trimmed about an hour from the final cut, mostly in the flash-forward scenes narrated by the future emperor of Egypt. The film as stands is an interminable 173 minutes.

Comments

[emidala.livejournal.com]

#1. ♥ your icon.

#2. so no spoilers set aside, should I see it? it won't make me start killing people?

♥

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Caveat: I am not an expert on Alexander, nor on Hellenistic history.

That being said, I didn't cringe once at a historical detail. They may possibly be there to cringe at, but none were obvious enough for me to notice.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Also, the icon is from the Macedonian Party website.

[prosewitch.livejournal.com]

The real question is... was it worse than King Arthur? Should I drag a fellow intellectual friend so we can mercilessly mock it when we're not drooling over the eyecandy? Should I even bother going back and rereading some of the historical sources on Alexander that I recall liking, or will the movie just make me regret it?

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

It was not nearly as bad as King Arthur. It wasn't necessarily a good movie, but it didn't have the same mindboggling ghastliness. As far as reading historical sources -- you might then have a better sense than I about what might be wrong with the film, but I get the feeling the filmmakers really did their research well this time.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I love the bit about hundreds of soliders on loan from the Moroccan government. It's the history-as-farce version of all those European wars fought largely with mercenaries.

[emidala.livejournal.com]

I wonder if anything in this world is as bad as king arthur. :)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I hope not.

That being said, the more I think about Alexander, the worse it seems. It doesn't really hold up to lengthy thought processes.

[prosewitch.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's mostly what I wanted to know. I'll see who I can drag with me to see it when I've got time... ;)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Don't hurry. As I just told emidala, the movie...shrinks on me. (Is that the opposite of "grows on me"?)