Oliver Stone's 2004 epic met mixed reviews but here's what Alexander: The Ultimate Cut changes about the movie, and if it was for the better.

How does Alexander: The Ultimate Cut differ from previous versions of Oliver Stone's historical epic? Colin Farrell's breakout came with Joel Schumacher's drama Tigerland, and the young Irish actor soon found himself in high demand. In 2003 alone he appeared in six movies, from Irish thriller Intermission to The Recruit with Al Pacino and Daredevil, where he hammed up a storm as assassin Bullseye. In 2004 he was given a true test of his star power by playing the title role in Alexander, a big-budget epic about Alexander III of Macedon.

This was something of a dream project for director Oliver Stone (Savages), and the Alexander cast also featured Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and Jared Leto. It was ushered into production quickly to beat out another Alexander movie that was set to star Leonardo DiCaprio that was later canceled. Despite featuring a great cast and being billed as a lavish epic, Alexander 2004 was greeted with hostile reviews for its clunky narrative, odd creative choices, its downplaying of Alexander's bisexuality, its historical inaccuracies and many other issues. The movie ended up grossing a little over $160 million, which barely covered its production budget.

While it's not unheard of for a filmmaker to rework a film they're not entirely happy with - think Ridley Scott and Blade Runner - for a period it seemed like Oliver Stone was obsessed with getting Alexander right. In 2005 he put together a Director's Cut for DVD, which removed footage and added back new material, resulting in a shorter, more action-packed edit. A couple of years later came Alexander Revisited: The Final Unrated Cut, a kitchen sink edit that ran over three and a half hours, and greatly fleshed out the relationships between Alexander, his mother and other key figures in his life while rearranging the narrative structure.

While Oliver Stone promised that would be the end, in 2014 - a decade after the movie's original release - came Alexander: The Ultimate Cut. The director's trimmed the movie down once again, feeling the previous version added back too much. All these re-edits and tweaks have resulted in a stronger film - even if it is still fundamentally flawed. The way the story is presented has been overhauled from the theatrical cut, and instead of a straightforward birth to death tale narrated by Anthony Hopkins' (Westworld) character, The Ultimate Cut jumps around in time. It now opens with the Battle of Gaugamela, before flashing back to his childhood with mother Queen Olympias (Jolie) and brutish father King Philip II (Kilmer), who is later assassinated.

Alexander: The Ultimate Cut greatly benefits from the expanded character development, which adds depth to supporting players who felt like ciphers in the original edit. Suggestions of Alexander's bisexuality in the 2004 cut largely came down to longing looks between him and best friend Hephaestion (Leto), but The Ultimate Cut actually explores this element. He gains a slave named Bagoas (Francisco Bosch), who is often seen in Alexander's bed and the two kiss following Bagoas performing an erotically charged dance for Alexander and his men - resulting in despairing looks from both Hephaestion and Alexander's wife Roxana (Rosario Dawson).

Alexander: The Ultimate Cut also underlines the romantic longing between Hephaestion and Alexander, and when the former succumbs to illness, the latter dies a short time later while looking at a ring Hephastion gave him. The movie was never intended as a completely accurate Alexander the Great documentary, but Alexander: The Ultimate Cut is a wildly ambitious and unique epic, and if viewers are curious about the movie this is the best version to see.

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