In Troy, the greatest war of antiquity is reduced from a 10-year slog to a stylized expedition that ends in a fortnight. With constant deviations from the Iliad, which director Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One) flimsily claims as a source, and a few cosmetic errors, this "epic"-a label suggested by its glut of publicity-struggles to meet Homeric proportions but still manages to deliver satisfying portions of bloody conquest and cinematic beauty.Visual accomplishments aside, Petersen's Trojan War is also laden with chest-thumping politicos, preening warriors and mindless soliloquies. When the Greeks and Trojans aren't hacking each other to pieces, which they fortunately spend much of the film doing, they are mired in addressing each other in soporific pleas and hackneyed battle cries. David Benioff's (25th Hour) script is heavy on the dialogue, but light on substance.

The impetus for the Trojan War is, of course, the Trojan prince Paris' seduction of Helen, the stunning wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Summoned by Agamemnon, Menelaus' brother and the king of Mycenae, an alliance of Greek states gather their armies and sail for Troy.
Cinematically, these details are captured well, but they are not The Iliad, which focuses on the rivalry between Achilles, the greatest warrior ever, and Hector, the other prince of Troy, and hardly a slouch in battle himself.

The film doesn't fail to highlight the bulk of The Iliad; much screen time is spent on Brad Pitt (Ocean's Eleven) as Achilles and Eric Bana (Hulk) as Hector. Pitt, affecting a bizarre half-Oklahoman, half-Mediterranean accent, presents Achilles as a godlike warrior wholly consumed by his celebrity. While appropriate to the original poem, Achilles' infinite egoism tires on film.

What Troy does portray effectively are several of Achilles' subplots. There is no shortage of his dissatisfaction with Agamemnon, or his closeness to Patroclus (Garret Hedlund), although Homer's faithful will find that relationship altered for the viewing masses. In the text, Patroclus is Achilles' closest friend, tent-mate and possibly more; here they are cousins and Achilles' tent is seldom bereft of concubines.
Bana makes Hector a convincing tragic warrior, and the most respectable character in the entire film. Prescient of the impending battle and not entirely confident in his country's ability to defend itself, Bana's
Hector exemplifies battlefield duty, loyalty and bravery.

Paris, on the other hand, is a cosmopolitan wimp. Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings), formerly a bow-wielding elf with gifted foresight, is in Troy saddled with the inability to handle a sword and a penchant for absurd foreign policy speeches to the Trojan cabinet. Always by his side is Helen, played by the German bombshell Diane Kruger. She is stunning, but has so little to say in this movie that she is often emotionally distant eye candy. And although she is correctly a blonde, Kruger sometimes appears so Nordic, one might suspect the face that launched a thousand ships unleashed a horde of U-boats instead of triremes.

Brendan Gleeson (Cold Mountain) is convincing in making Menelaus a jealous, raging buffoon. But the biggest fool in Troy is Agamemnon, played skillfully by Brian Cox (Adaptation). While it is Menelaus who demands the fight with Troy, it is Agamemnon who has assembled the other city-states-an Argive coalition of the willing. And like other alliances of similar billing, Agamemnon's is tenuous.

Agamemnon's peninsular union is made complete with Odysseus. Sean Bean, another former member of Peter Jackson's fellowship has a small but refreshing role. He is also the most level-headed of the Greek kings; he is less Odysseus the great warrior and more Odysseus the foreign policy moderate set against Agamemnon the neocon.

The more youthful characters are in top form, the blood hardly stops flowing, the battles are intense and the wooden horse doesn't fail to impress. But when the action slows down, Troy slows under the weight of droning monologues and tedious war-planning scenes. The conversion from the Iliad (and parts of the Aeneid) is rough, and the acting, with a few exceptions, is rather stodgy. Petersen knows how to make a good popcorn action flick, but it is hardly an epic worthy of Homer.