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Troy: Fall of a City (2018)
UNBELIEVABLY BAD!
It takes a LOT for me to give something ambitious a bad review.
I always give the benefit of the doubt if it doesn't quite come off, because at least they've Tried.
But ... *** TROY!!!!*** has been launched with such fanfare and publicity -- "The BBC's most expensive series EVER!!!!"; and promising to "Look at the characters, not just the Action!", that, in this case, the BBC has to be treated like It knew what it was doing.
First ... It certainly doesn't LOOK expensive! In fact it looks like it's done on a REALLY crimped budget. It has been set in a VERY non glam Troy! Basic rooms in the "Palace", buildings are loe-rise mud-brick. There are NO big beautiful buildings or outside sets. The actors just wander around in a few large rooms -- minimal decoration.
Outside, there are a few huts, trader "stalls" and a stable.
Apart from about 12 main actors, there seem quite few Extras. Compared to my Fave show "Vikings" on History 2 (not even H1! ! !!) which must have 200 extras regularly, twice as many regular cast, half a dozen detailed "indoor" sets and 4-5 "outdoor" sets, plus a LOT of Locations and a good amount of CGI. I must check the cost of "Vikings" but it LOOKS at least TWICE as expensive as Troy -- and it's only on Basic Cable
Then ... there's the Script and Acting .... Oh gaaaaaad!!!!
There are a lot of really good actors in Troy and some good TV Directors. So it must have been a Command Decision from the Exec Producers/Exec Director that the actors have Total Body Botox Esp the Face. Nobody has facial expressions! When Agamemnon (seemingly) moans the weather is a bit overcast at the beach, he is told by a priest to sacrifice his beloved daughter, his face is expressionless from then right through to slashing Iffyvagina's throat and beyond. Not a single muscle moves.
When Helen has known Paris for all of 5 minutes, she declares, "You make me mad" as if she were actually saying, "You make me sleepy."
The ONLY Actor and Character this blank/emotionless style suits is 'Achilles' -- who is a big, muscular bundle of repressed rage and violence. You KNOW that when HE let's go .... There will be dead bodies EVERYWHERE! .... and, indeed, there are.
But for all the other characters, they just seem utterly disconnected and bored with their obvious fate.
It is NO pleasure for me to say this is the dullest, most uninspiring and downright bloody BORING retelling of one of the MOST famous and exciting Myths in all Ancient "History".
For ME it's compulsive viewing, just to see how truly, bloody awful it is!