Review of Kingdom of Heaven (2005) by Spangle — 24 Jun 2014

I saw the director's cut while it was long, it is hard to imagine the theatrical version after seeing what they originally planned to release. Yes, it was slow at times, but everything included was definitely important for the story and having things make sense.

Now, in terms of the film, it is gorgeous in many respects. First, the cinematography is great. The sets are also beautifully put together and they really chose a great location for filming this one, as it provided many beautiful images.

In addition, the soundtrack was perfect. Often times, I do not notice a film's soundtrack, except when it was very good or very bad, and this one was great. Finally, the battle scenes were very well put together.

They were certainly violent, but for the most part, beautifully filmed and choreographed.The acting was also solid, in particular from Edward Norton. He had a very small role, but had a really commanding presence here and killed it whenever he was speaking.

Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons were also very good here. Orlando Bloom and Eva Green were mostly good as well. Really, the only things holding this one back for me were the pace at times. While, for the most part, it was very interesting and moved at a steady pace, at times it slowed down to almost a crawl.

If those could be picked up a bit, this one would be better. Another negative would be the script. At times, it was absolutely cringeworthy, at others it was serviceable, and at others it was pretty good.

However, it certainly left a lot to be desired at times.