Troy
Oh yeah, and when I was in Nagasaki last weekend, I saw “Troy,” which is just opening now in Japan.

I've written previously on this blog that, as someone who loves the original Greek myth, I was worried about what the movie would do to the story.

I’m somewhat tempted to go into geek mode now and list everything that was wrong in the movie, but I’ll refrain. For one thing a quick visit to rotten tomatoes will demonstrate that every other critic in the world has already written about this.
Secondly, there is just too much stuff to go into. The complete absence of any gods or goddesses in the movie means that everything that happened by divine intervention in the myth had to be explained differently in the movie. Who lived and who died was different in the movie and the myth, and even when it wasn't, how they died or who killed who was often wrong. And many of my favorite characters didn't even appear in the movie.
And 3rdly, what does one expect from a 2-hour Hollywood movie? They couldn't have been faithful to the myth even if they wanted to-- there is just to much material.

However to my pleasant surprise, I thought the movie did a good job of staying true to the flavor of the myth. Most of the characters were just as I had always pictured them. The movie resisted the temptation to make Achilles into a whitewashed hero, and showed him with many of the same faults and motivations he had in the myth. Agamemnon’s character as well seems very similar to the Agamemnon portrayed in the Iliad. Like the original myth, the movie makes an attempt to show both sides of the war as sympathetic at times.

Now whether this works as a summer blockbuster sword and sandal popcorn epic is another question. But I thought they were making an effort.

Video Version Troy