Hanna (2011)

If this movie had been made even three years earlier, it would have starred Liam Neeson in place of Eric Bana, and probably Scarlett Johannsen in place of Saoirse Ronan. Hanna would have been a lesser movie for it - more like the Bourne Identity with a girl, er, woman in place of Matt Damon (I say girl or woman because Hanna is a girl and Miss Johannsen is a woman). Don't get me wrong - I love the Bourne movies, but I don't need to see cheap knock-offs, and it would have been in that other-world version of the movie. But Bana and Ronan take it to a whole different level, and adding Cate Blanchett into the mix makes it a different kind of thing entirely.
Bana, whom I've most recently seen in Troy and the Hulk, seemed younger than in those movies and slimmer, almost like he was his own younger brother. His own younger, very talented brother at that. I've always liked Bana and usually feel that he is being underused, or like in Troy where his acting is so much above the other actors that he is in scenes with that you wonder if he's embarrassed at the role. Don't tell me that he isn't at least seven times the actor that Orlando Bloom is.
Ronan was such a treat in The Lovely Bones, and I'm glad to see her in another role. She owns every scene that shes in and is on par with Bana and Blanchett. Her scenes with the British family on vacation really illustrate her skill and I feel sorry for the actor playing the father, as he seems a bit out of his depth, as does perhaps the daughter, but it's hard to tell as the character is a bit shallow. The fight scenes are amazing, and yet seem very realistic. This isn't a movie with the high flying martial arts of earlier films in this genre, but instead uses the nitty-gritty, highly effective style popularized in the Bourne movies and Daniel Craig's James Bond movies. I like forward to a day when I can see Ronan in an action film fighting alongside Milla Jovovich, hopefully fighting zombies, vampires or ninjas, or even better yet all of the above.
Blanchett is the weak link of the three stars. That's right. That's how good this movie is, when you can say that Cate Blanchett is the weak link. Blanchett is reminiscent of a younger Helen Mirren and this type of role bodes of many great films to come. The only problem I had with her character was the accent. I understand why a CIA handler might need and American accent, and I understand why that might even be a Sourthern accent, but I'm not sure why they had her do one. The first part of the movie I felt like her accent was not nearly as pronounced as in the last part of the film.
This film leaves a lot of things open at the end in almost exactly the same way that the Bourne Identity did, so I will not be surprised to see a sequel or two based upon it and will galdly watch them.

Hanna on IMDB

Troy (2004)

I remember when this movie hit the theaters, the reviews were so bad that I didn't see it on the big screen. It was years later before I saw it. I remember thinking that while I wasn't terribly impressed, neither was I displeased, but really what they should have done was cast Sean Bean as Odysseus in the Odyssey - they could have called it "Ithaca" since apparently they thought using the place name was cooler than what Homer used. But, then they probably would have changed it as drastically as they did this story.
Actually what would have been really cool is if they did a trilogy based on the Iliad and the Odyssey and have it be more phenomenological than this "historical" approach, but way toned down from the likes of Clash of the Titans. Naturally they should have some genius like Peter Jackson direct. Naturally.
And the star power of Brad Pitt aside, I would have gone with an all American, or all English cast or at least picked actors that could the accent of the world. Why would Achilles have a different accent from everybody else? Why would Priam's general sound like a Scotsman? So many of the actors in this movie I really enjoy, so of course recognize, "oh look there's that elf and the fallen hero, oh over there is that mutant supervillain and the dastardly government official. hey, don't make him mad, he'll super-size and go all green on your ass, and look, he's talking to the Scotsman who's heart is brave. The main problem with this movie is that I never stop seeing Brad Pitt and start seeing Achilles. I never stop seeing Orlando Bloom and start seeing Paris. And why is Helen blond?
Because they called it Troy, I'll let them get by with "loosely" basing their film on the Iliad. If they had called it the Iliad, I would be crucifying them for the inaccuracies, you know small things like the war taking only two to three weeks instead of the ten years. Or characters who are alive (if not well) in the Odyssey getting killed off. No, I won't mention those.
What did this film have going for it? Bana, Bean, O'Toole, Cox. It was pretty. There were hardly any spots where I could tell that certain characters were computer animated. It wasn't done in 3D.
What didn't this film have going for it? Bloom, Kruger. I mean come on - making Paris an archer that so closely resembles his Legolas, except for the part where Paris is a coward. There were scenes that were computer animated. I knew this before I saw the film, and I certainly knew this when I watched the armada approach Troy and when the Greeks finally breech the walls of Troy. And, as much as I love Brad Pitt, this story should not have been about Achilles.
Now, who would I cast in my trilogy of the Iliad and the Odyssey...