Its noticeable why Oliver Stone named this film plainly Alexander, rather than, Alexander The Great. It is not great and neither is the character Alexander in this film. It has very little to do with Farrell's performance and much to do with the final draft of the screenplay. To add to Colin Farrell, the list of actors include Angelina Julie, Anthony Hopkins, Val Kolmer and Jared Leto.
Colin Farrell who plays Alexander in this film doesn't do a bad job at all. Granted, I still believe there could have been a better actor to portray Alexander, but the effort given by Farrell is clear. However, the base of any film is its screenplay and that is where the mediocrity sections of Alexander are. Oliver Stone seemed to have problems with his writing skills this time.
Oliver Stone who we all know as a great director has made great films such as Platoon, Wall Street, JEFF and Natural Born Killers. Unfortunately, Alexander cannot fall under his set of great films. Every director has their share of bad films and while I wouldn't place Alexander as a bad film, I would definitely place it under average. Its a shame because I'm sure when someone sees as established director take a step down, it is truly a disappointment by all means.
In this film, Alexander is portrayed more like a prince than a king and that is part of its problem. Alexander, the character as portrayed in this film is not grand nor a man of power. Instead, the audience is experiencing a character that pretty much seems to be spending day by day not knowing what his plans for the future are. This is something that was not clarified in Alexander.
Stone gave the narration role to Anthony Hopkins and throughout the film we hear his voice-over. I question the fact of voice-over because everyone would rather have a story shown to them than a story told to them. To be told of the legendary history of Alexander, one could just read the novel. Live action is made to picture everything that we have read into a better understanding.
I must verify that Alexander of course was a bisexual. Oliver Stone plays his bisexuality low key in this film rather than having a good chunk of the film out of this. This film never shows Hephaistion and Alexander with the intimacy they deserved. Instead, the secret relationship between those two characters are just pop-ups on the screen every so often with simply hugs or massages.
Mature audiences should be able to handle a male to male kiss scene which is actually done in Alexander. However, it was not by Hephaistion who is played by Jared Leto. The restraints in cinema are awkward and can affect films such as it has affected Alexander. Obviously, this is not the problem in Alexander because it was also way too crumbled for its three hour running time.
Yes, everyone expects a big budget extravaganza and they will unfortunately not get that with this film. Even with that, Alexander has its strong points and the battle in the film are pleasantly done. They are not outstanding because of the unfit cinematography, but they should keep audiences entertained. The cinematography and editing of Alexander are at times messy.
Oliver Stone even features a bit of his changing color on the screen. Many fans of the director would know it was bound to happen. Stone needed his direction to fit with a bit of more convincing actors and a more powerful screenplay. Whats taken is taken and overall Alexander is mediocre, but not a failure. Some can enjoy it for what its worth, but will feel cheated that they didn't get the whole story.
Alexander is a flawed film and there is no questioning that. From some of the acting to many parts of the legendary history missing, there is no denying that Oliver Stone should have taken this back to the works. At three hours long, you would think plenty of informative material and most of the important aspects of Alexander will be on the screen. In this case, it isn't, and Alexander is yet another epic that cannot seem to be what it's meant to be, Epic.
