"Alexander" the mediocre biopic

Oliver Stone offers everything about the legendary hero Alexander the Great in his newest flick, "Alexander". He has reenactments of Alexander's huge battles, sweeping camera shots of the gorgeous countryside he conquered and all the cutthroat drama he experienced as the king of kings. If only battle scenes and gorgeous scenery translated into good filmmaking.

Stone falls short in "Alexander", a biopic about the celebrated Macedonian leader who conquered most of the known world in 300 B.C. Stone's battle scenes are massive, gargantuan in scale and yet boring. His brilliant entourage of stars leave "Alexander"'s larger-than-life characters limp and powerless. Stone is not a bad director; "JFK" and "Natural Born Killers" were imaginative and well-organized. "Alexander" is just horribly insipid and discontinuous.

For example, at the battle of Gaugamela, where Alexander (Colin Farrell) attempts to defeat the armies of Persia and steal the thriving nation for his own empire, Stone uses shots of independent phalanxes battling each other and literal bird's-eye-view aerial shots to explain Alexander's military genius and the enormous scale of his battles.

Stone had the right idea, but army men running around in thick clouds of sands like beheaded chickens gets pretty confusing. It's too difficult even to sit back and admire Stone's army; cheesy synthesizer orchestra music ruins the majesty of the to-and-fro of battling soldiers.

After Gaugamela, Alexander advances his troops across his known world. This takes roughly two hours"two long, painful hours chock full of drawn-out whining and petty melodrama. Farrell portrays Alexander as a passive, moody general, rendering all the possible drama between Alexander and his entourage of commanders as trite as soap-opera conflict.

Stone creates Alexander's personality as a classical Freudian example. Alexander is loved too much by his hysterical and domineering mother Olympias (Angelina Jolie, clad in tight robes and live pythons), who always teaches him to fear everyone, including his father Philip (Val Kilmer). Jolie makes it very clear that Olympias is one crazy and controlling lady; she seduces her son and talks like a sultry leprechaun.

This sub-par acting and production just doesn't compute. Stone is an amazing director. He had the ability to make someone believe in the crazy conspiracies he concocted in "JFK" and to rouse controversy over untouched issues in a savvy and stylish way in "Natural Born Killers". Despite a multi-million dollar budget, Stone only manages to give a few glimpses of his talent, which are few and quite far between.

"Alexander" is full of holes where Stone's unique style should be, and out of those holes leaks everything that "Alexander" could have been: a stylish and engaging biopic.

Alexander is rated R for violent battle scenes, nudity and adult subject matter. Playing at area theatres.