Before I dive into this review, I wanted to say that I have never seen the original theatrical cut or the first attempt by Oliver Stone to do a Director's Cut. As a result, I am not sure how different this version is from the earlier versions of the movie.

I guess I should start by pointing out the fact that this is an unrated version of the movie. That is probably because the battle scenes spare nothign when it comes to blood and gore. Body parts are chopped off and go flying, people are squished in all sorts of ways, and blood literally spirts all over the place. It had me cringing at times (mostly when the animals were getting hurt so that tells you where my compassion lies).

Maybe it was because I did not have high expectations of the movie because I had heard so many bad things about it or maybe it was improved in this new cut, but I actually found myself quite interesting.

I am sure that all of you are familiar with the story of Alexander the Great, a young man whose father did not trust him. He takes over as the king of Macedonia when his father dies and builds one of the largest empires the world has known before his death shortly before his 33rd birthday.

The movie kicks off during a major battle that swings the tide of battled toward the Greeks in their war against Babylonia under the rule of Darius. It pretty much defines Alexander's skill as a general because he uses a fairly unorthodox technique that allows him to crush the enemy.

From their the movie jumps back and forth through time presenting his rise and fall. We see scenes of him as a young child torn between a powerful and conspiring mother named Olympias (played by Angelina Jolie) and Philip, his drunken, noble father (play by a chubby Val Kilmer).

Haphaisteon (played by Jared Leto) apparently takes on a greater role in this version. I did some research online, and the sites seem to agree that this version much more thoroughly explores Alexander's bisexuality, which was common among ancient Greek warriors. None of the romantic scenes compare to his first evening with his first wife Roxane (played by Rosario Dawson), but there is not shortage of allusions and intimate moments between these two childhood friends and a number of other men in his life.

To me this movie was up to the older "classic" swords and sandals flicks put out by MGM. Alexander is truly a tragic character in the purist dramatic sense. And this is a modern epic that really is so much better than Troy, which starred Brad Pitt. It definitley has an epic scale. I was not bothered by the accents used in the movie. The Greeks came across as Irish, and Olympias adopts a Russian-sounding accent, but I was OK with that. I assumed it was because Stone wanted consistency with Colin Farrell's accent.

There are cameos by Anthony Hopkins, who plays an elder Ptolemy providing the narration as he tells Alexander's tale, and Christopher Plummer, who plays Aristotle.

From what I read in the other sites, Stone has fixed a lot of the things that brought about the criticisms int he earlier version so it seems I waited long enough to get around to it. If you do want to see this movie, I would suggest making sure it is this version.