I never wanted to watch Oliver Stone's Alexander but it happened. Three long hours it was and I fell asleep during one of those so called 'epic' battle scenes. I'm not somebody that falls asleep so easily in the cinemas. The last time i fell asleep was another war movie Brotherhood, yes, the one which stars Won Bin.

And yes, we will continue to see more and more of such movies in the future. These so-called blockbusters. Holloywood producers will contniue to dig out greek war gods, true war stories, fantasy novels as material for their next blockbuster. They will continue to pay A-list hollywood stars millions, first, to boost their box-office potential, secondly, to mess up that actor's testimonial.

I didn't really enjoy Mel Gibson's Braveheart but the Oscars and the critics love it. It got more stale when he did The Patriot, We Were Soldiers. Same formula, different time frames. All in all, it's the same.

Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan won several prizes too. But it's probably one of Spielberg's less refreshing work and it will be only remembered as, maybe, Singapore's first NC-16 movie. Replicas like Black Hawk Down, Windtalkers, Tears of the Sun..blah blah yawn... yea haven't watched them but you roughly get the idea.

There was Pearl Harbour. Then there was Troy. It was nothing much besides Brad Pitt. That was probably what the whole show's about. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was of course something to look forward to at the end of the year during those days. It was aesthetics at its best. So dreamy and magical. The battle scenes were awesome and so extravagant and it rightfully deserved its place in the Hall of Classics Fame.

But the one true war movie (which may not really fall into this genre) which I really liked is The Last Samurai by Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. It is more spiritual and visceral than all the above mentioned. It was a war movie that is quiet and peaceful, had characters that were strong, real and mythical at the same time. While other war movies have really lame pre-battle storylines, the old cliched 'leaving behind the loved ones', 'pride and honour', 'sacrifcing one self'. Well alright not really lame but forceful and simply too vague, which makes viewers think that the director wants to quickly finish the bullshit and get on to the climatic scene. The Last Samurai however has a whole chunk of story, explaining the way of life of the Samurai warriors, their rich heritage, their softer and humane side, what they are fighting for. And how all that came to jeapordy by political plot and emergence of warfare technology. More depth and a better storyline is all that's required for these war movies i feel.

Long long ago there was Ben Hur, people then were blown away. Alexander like its many other cousins over the past few years certainly didn't impress this generation. And Colin Farrell is really ugly in the movie. Yea, screw you.