Expected more

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

This film is truly terrible, in almost every respect.It does highlight a major fault with the IMDb rating system, in that one star is far too generous. If I could give it zero stars, I would. If I could bill those behind this film for my time wasted, I would.The sum contribution of all the people involved in the making of this film, however, cannot be dismissed quite so easily. They have found a cure for insomnia orders of magnitude better than temazepam. A warning though - I didn't get through a lot this film, and it may be possible to overdose and cause severe damage to your neural functions.Overall, best avoided.

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}

I like epic movies especially when it involves history and human greatness. You have a topic here that qualifies however if one is to believe the movie, the subject matter namely Alexander was deeply flawed. The dysfunctions that he suffered from actually supplied the power and drive to do what he did i.e. to conquer and take over that which had never been done before just because he could. having cruel parents who specialize in crazy-making allowed his inner demons to flourish. The movie shows that after a conquest, he liked to return the situation to a status quo and one wonders why he bothered to in the first place. He lived a life of excess, irresponsibility, absolute power, sex-centered, alcoholic fueled daily existence that in the end contributed to his self-destruction. He set himself up to die so to speak. Why? He had no depth, meaning or purpose. Just an empty drive to succeed. He surrounded himself with people that supported his vanity and ego-centric comings and goings. He was not rare in that respect for history shows that all great men have peculiarities. The movie delivers these observations and more. The director comes from abundance when putting a story together which I consider a good thing. The actors each had good screen time to pitch their trade and did well. One thing though. I always notice that in certain movies like Braveheart, Return of the King, The 300, Troy and this one, the leader gives a speech to thousands of men and they cheer him on but for the life of me, how can they all hear what he saying? Only those within earshot get it which means about 100 at the most. Do the rest just do a "wave" and go along with the front group? I also had trouble with Alexander not taking the time to have many sons of which he had access to do. Again, this contributes to a self-sabotage theme for this conqueror. Oliver Stone did different versions of this movie and it gets confusing keeping track of it all. Was I glad I watched it? Sure. However, it is not something one wants to see again for it lacks the must see again scenes and has a lot of don't want to see scenes again in it as well. Enjoy with some favorite snack for after all it is epic movie time!