Alexander The Great was a relentless conqueror who by the age of 32 had amassed the greatest empire the world had ever seen. Past and present collide to form the puzzle of the protagonist, a tapestry of triumphs and tragedies in which childhood memories and Alexander's rise to power unfold side by side with the later day expansion of his empire, its gradual decline and ultimate downfall. From his youth, fueled by dreams of glory and adventure, to his lonely and mysterious death as a ruler of a vast state, from the tumultuous relationship with his parents - a powerful king and a queen determined to put her child on the throne at any cost, including murder - to the rousing "band of brothers" bond with his closest companions and vast army, as they fought from the sun-scorched battlefields of the Persian Empire across the snow-peaked mountains of India, the film chronicles Alexander's journey to become a living legend. For as Virgil wrote, "Fortune favors the bold." And no king or emperor, either before or after, ever achieved such fortune, or indeed was so bold, as Alexander the Great.

Alexander seemed to miss the point on how to make a good epic and that is to tell a great epic the stories sometimes need to be larger than life and almost as unbelievable. Alexander bases itself in fact too much and fails to find the true story tellers art of exaggeration and splendor. The tale of Alexander the Great is fantastic enough that it would not have taken much from the filmmakers to make it as bold and as incredible as he was. But they fail to do this, more interested in the drama of Alexander’s life than the amazing things he did and accomplished. The producers should have taken a look at how Troy managed to meld myth with legend and history to make a breath-taking movie. I was happy to see Alexander take a more historic approach than Troy but disappointed that they could not find more action to go with the drama that surrounded Alexander. That is not to say the movie is bad by any means, just that at times it was boring and drug a little and did not contain enough action, at times I wanted to just say less talk more action.

Colin Farrell did do amazing job as Alexander as he seemed to just fit the role perfectly, maybe it was the fact that Farrell just seems to have an arrogance that was Alexander. I was also surprised that he did do some of the homosexual scenes as Alexander was knowingly bisexual. I just never totally accepted Angelina Jolie his mother, as she did not seem to have the evil spirit that would have fit the role so well. For the most part the acting was done well but just over the top at times. The movie just seemed to be shooting for that epic feel from the acting to the story telling and most of the time they fell short of reaching the goal. The movie is entertaining at times, the movie is boring at times, but it is worth seeing at least once for a matinee or a rental,
3 stars out of 5