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Best movie of this year hands down!

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Unusual to review a film that was produced more than 10 years earlier, but the story needs to be told.Found it on DVD format, Director's Cut, 2-disk, at a church rummage sale (Byzantine rite, of all churches... ) and purchased it for one dollar. Figured it was going to be good entertainment back home.While viewing it with friends, we all made comments at how a director of the caliber of Oliver Stone was convinced by producers to make such a film. The scenes of the warrior riding his horse, the disciples learning from the philosophers among ionic ruins, domestic squabbles among togas, battle scenes with swords and armor, a British accented English spoken language to give erudition to the characters. All reminiscent properties and aspects of the sword and sweat 1950's film generation, which then was repeated for television in the 1980's. Not sure why financing was allowed to flow for this relatively flat cinematic production. Old. Just too old.

As a historian, I believe that Alexander III of Macedonia (whom we know as Alexander the Great) was so essential for the course of human history that he achieved, by his own merit, a permanent place in the list of ten or fifteen most decisive personalities always. A very exclusive list of personalities who, for good or bad reasons, have forever changed our world's history. Personalities like Jesus Christ, Julius Caesar, Gengis Khan, Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler, Cleopatra, Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Galileo Galilei, Darwin, Napoleon, George Washington or Picasso... heroes or villains in an always subjective list, but it's impossible to think what the world would look like without them, isn't it? So it is with Alexander. But I'm not here to talk about this historical personality, just the movie. An intense epic that seeks to be faithful to the known facts of the life of this conquering, narcissistic, megalomaniac, homosexual and deeply complex king. This story begins at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC) and follows, recounting childhood, youth and ascension to the throne through flashbacks.Overall, I found the film interesting and enjoyable, even though it wasn't good. The script is historically accurate, at least in general. Of course there are exaggerated or buzzing scenes for dramatic purposes. The problem is that, even so, its a vague script and doesn't justify three and a half hours lenght. It would have been better if the post-production and editing work had cut about forty-five minutes. Another problem I felt was excessive grandeur. I know it's an epic movie, but it's possible to be epic without being presumptuous and this movie was a show of self-importance. This can be seen in the actors' theatrical and affected manners, a bunch of peacocks displaying their feathers all the time. This heroic spirit impregnated also Vangelis soundtrack, probably one of the worst he already made. I still felt difficulties with all those flashbacks. A narrative so loaded with advances and retreats seems more like a tango. They are useful, no one doubts, but sometimes it took a long time for me to realize that I was watching a flashback, and it makes everything more tiresome and confusing.The film is loaded with great actors but none of them shone for lack of a competent script and director. Colin Farrell was boringly heroic and should have kept his hair dark because the real Alexander would NEVER have been blonde. The way this actor behaved was erratic and dialogues were theatrical and full of pompous sentences. Angelina Jolie is a casting error, she was too young for the character and seemed constantly younger than her own son. Val Kilmer was OK as Phillip, with a generous dose of make-up for making him older and scarred. Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Plummer were both well, but there wasn't much for them here. Jared Leto was terribly bad, and his effeminate character was already boring enough. Rosario Dawson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, John Kavanagh and other actors were OK as supporting but had no individual brilliance.On a technical level, the film is flawless. CGI is excellent and gives us some truly beautiful scenes, such Babylon or several battle scenes. Battles are spectacular and full of action, steroids, adrenaline and epic spirit. Cinematography is loaded with warm, intense yellow and red colors, and this sometimes tires our eyes a little, but it's beautiful. Costumes are very detailed and well made. Oliver Stone worked hard on these points and succeeded, but it was the bad script, the actors wooden performances, the erratic narrative and an unpleasant presumption that defeated this film.

The movie is quite faithful to the history - that's the good part. On the other hand as an action film is a failure, it is mostly tiresome and too long. Mr. Stone is obviously striving to show us everything or at least the most possible. Here comes the Greek saying - good is not too much (but less).

I wanted to watch this movie for far too long but I always delayed it to watch other movies because there wasn't an incentive to watch it, 5.5 points on IMDb? really? oh boy, i was so wrong.This movie totally satisfied me, as i wasn't expecting much from it.The story telling was great, I liked the switch between the past and the present(less past?) often. It really helped us to understand the character better.In my defense, I was always interested in Alexander the Great but I never fully had to chance to know about him. This movie managed to overcome my hunger.Same as during the battle scenes, it keeps us informed as "macedonian right" or "macedonian center" things like that. i wish all movies would do that so that i can grasp the battle really, totally in essence.I'm trying to understand people's mindset about this. I guess maybe it came out in the same year with Troy in 2004. Troy was also about history but the battle scenes were soo much more quality than Alexander for sure. Maybe people were expecting to see something similar.The character buildup is great, soon after i started to feel like i was there with Alexander or i felt like i was him, making the decisions and he always kept his calm and explained when he needed to. Maybe we got the characters so well because the movie is pretty long. According to IMDb its 2:55 but i watched a version which it was even longer 3:33. But I never felt bored. This movie is a must for history lovers. If you are looking for glorious battle scenes you might not find them.I'm a lover of maps and a sizable chunk of the movie passes on showing the maps during studies of young Alexander or in his chambers before battle and when the storyteller tells us. So it was not too much nor too less. Extremely adequate.In papers English was written in Greek style which was a nice touch.Music at the end (i knew it, but i didn't know the name so i shazamed it) was amazing (titans vangelis). It was a nice finishing touch for such a great movie.Also I had to like the movie, even though i wouldn't have liked the movie in general out of respect to the amazing actors i know from various movies and series:(i'll just type their names and most prominent acts in my eyes)Anthony Hopkins {Kidnapping Mr. Heineken, Noah, The Silence of the Lambs, Amistad}Angelina Jolie {Salt, Wanted, Kung Fu Panda, Mr. & Mrs. Smith}Val Kilmer {Hardwired, Felon, The Love Guru, Heat}Christopher Plummer {Inside Man, Syriana, A Beautiful Mind, Twelve Monkeys}Colin Farrell {True Detective, The Lobster, Seven Psychopaths, S.W.A.T., Hart's War, Tigerland}Jared Leto {Suicide Squad, Mr. Nobody, Lord of War, Fight Club}Jonathan Rhys Meyers {From Paris with Love}Rory McCann {Game of Thrones}Toby Kebbell {Gold, Warcraft: The Beginning, Black Mirror, War Horse, The Veteran, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time}Rosario Dawson {Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Unstoppable, Seven Pounds, Clerks II, Sin City, 25th Hour}