Alexander - 4

The early part of the film moves quite quickly and draws the viewer in. But near the two hour mark it is just dragging on (the film is almost 3 hours long). As a history lesson it is informative. Although it seems the audience catches onto the high place of honor before Alexander's army does, which seems kind of weird since it was a culture that held honor and courage as the ultimate virtues of the fighter. Aristotle makes an appearance, and for getting about 10 minutes of film gets represented well (although Aristotle was Alexander's tutor not fifth grade teacher of a class of twenty like the film portrays). The film is not as controversial as made out in some of the media, although Alexander is shown as a disturb individual which doesn't seem like to big a stretch. The thing that got to me most was the accents of the characters. Alexander's mother (played by Angelina Jolie) sounds like she is from Russia, and a couple of the generals sound like Irishmen. I don't see why they didn't just make them all sound like regular English speakers, since it wasn't like they actually spoke English in 327 BC. It is an interesting take on a historical story, but not very well acted and focuses mostly on Alexander's relationship with his father, mother, and friends rather than his accomplishments and dedication as a general. I didn't find this film as bad as some of its critics but it wasn't spectacular either, at least it didn't stoop to the corniness of Troy - 4.