Agreed - as storytelling goes it holds together pretty well and a lot of unnecessary exposition got dropped without losing anything.
Pattinson is fine in craven bully mode but Leguizamo is unrecognisably good here and definitely deserves an Oscar nom. Anne Hathaway also makes the most of her limited role, as do Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, and Bill Irwin (as Polyphemus!).
At the other end of the spectrum, Tom Holland plays Tom Holland being all Tom Hollandy, Jon Bernthal is an odd choice for Menelaus, Zendaya has nothing to do until a few seconds near the end and thus looks bored for the rest of the film, Lupita Nyong’o is practically a cameo despite playing two different roles, and Charlize Theron looks like she just stopped by while on her beach vacation.
Oh, and I came away feeling like Matt Damon had just done a three-hour impersonation of Josh Brolin. But in a good way.
I would definitely see this on the big screen and in particular a cinema or IMAX with an excellent sound system because the sound design is really quite noteworthy throughout, from the subtle rustle and crack of trees moving in the wind to the deafening thunder of war. The scene with the sirens was done rather cleverly.