Review of Kingdom of Heaven (2005) by Chris W — 30 Jul 2011

As much as I enjoyed this, I think I would have liked it more had I watched the director's cut and not the flawed and disliked (by Scott himself) theatrical cut. Regardless, this is a sweeping epic that is beautiful to look at, has amazing costumes, sets, art direction, and cinematography, and features music that is a delight to listen to.

It's a given that this, and others like it, are historically inaccurate and fictionalized. That is to be expected. I may be a historian, and although the events and time depicted are not my speciality, I have taken a class on the Crusades, and can weigh in more easily about what is right and wrong with the depictions. Whether I have extensive knowledge of things in any historical film or not, I am generally very tolerant and understanding of things, and try not to do too much condemning.

I wished there was better character development and better plotting, both of which I hope the director's cut fixes. The performances were generally pretty good, and while I don't think Orlando Bloom can quite carry a film on his own yet (like he has to here), he's getting better .The supporting cast is terrific, with major props going to Irons, Green (despite murkiness with her character), the unrecognizable Norton, and the guy who played Saladin.

The battle scenes are terrific, and they are choreograped and executed quite well. It's also nice to note that the use of extras and real animals and props took place over CGI. Even though they are flawed, the non battle scens are good too; Maybe I happened to like them even more since I am a scholar, and can appreciate the dialogue heavy socio/political/religious content. Some of the dialogue is kinda bad, but the other great stuff makes up for it.

So yeah, this version is heavily flawed, but I still enjoyed it. When it comes to epic film making, Ridley Scott is a modern master.