Kingdom is at its heart a Ridley Scott film; plot and acting be damned, I'm going to make a pretty movie. This dedication to cinematic beauty has garnered Scott a devoted following, and I will give him credit that at least he stays true to his course as a director. But some of us who sit in the seats (though judging by box office returns, increasingly few of us) actually like to use our brains when we watch a movie, and sadly, Kingdom doesn't give us much of a chance to do that.
The movie centers around Orlando Bloom's character, Balian, the son of a famous knight (Liam Neeson) who journeys to Jerusalem in 1184 to atone for his sins and those of his late wife. Once there, he gets caught up in the intrigue between the good leper king of Jerusalem (Ed Norton, though you would never know it) and the evil templars, led by Guy de Lugnisan (played by one of my faves, Marton Csokas). Of course Balian gets caught in the middle of this conflict. There's also a subplot with Guy's arab wife, Sybilla (Eva Green).
Kingdom is as you would expect a gorgeous spectacle, with knights and Saracens and, blessedly, a battle you can actually follow (Scott's attempts to ape Saving Private Ryan in Gladiator were an embarrassing, confused mess. He does far better here). Though the chaos of war is aptly captured, we can follow the proceedings fine, and the final battle is one of the better sequences in the film. We get sumptuous views of the desert, and of the teeming metropolis of Jerusalem, and of blue-lensed France, which looks as dead as the underworld next to the profusely colorful Holy Land. The production design is top notch and stunningly realized.
I was also pleased with a lot of the casting. Aside from Csokas, whom I'm always glad to see, Alexander Siddig, best known as Dr. Julian Bashir on DS9, pops up in a moderate sized role, looking older and wiser and, well, perfect in his part. Brendan Gleeson, whose work continues to please, also shows up as a one-note evil templar. And Jeremy Irons, who has been guilty of some of the worst overacting I've ever seen, is as sharp as ever I've seen him here as Tiberius, aid to the leper king.
One of the problems that plagues Kingdom is that the core of the film is less interesting than what surrounds it. Bloom is a nice guy and a decent actor, but he's simply outclassed by the likes of Neeson, Gleeson, Irons, etc. Balian is never well-sketched we never really know what makes him tick and as such is far less colorful than almost everyone around him (he's even sort of flat compared to Green's Sybilla, who is badly miscalculated herself). I don't particularly blame Bloom though a more talented if less charismatic actor probably could have done more with the part.
What makes Balian so uncompelling is the other serious flaw with the movie, a flaw you find in many films of this ilk. Simply put, Balian is a modern character with modern sensibilities thrust into a period piece. Nearly every other character fits in with the scenery and mode of the times (even if they are sometimes a little simplistic, like the snarling Guy); Balian is an anachronism, acting as a modern hero would act, but as a man reared in that world could not even imagine acting. This might have been okay if everyone had acted that way, but every other character except Sybilla is crafted to carefully fit in the world of 800 years ago. Balian's championing of modern values means he's cast adrift like a piece of flotsam on the tide; and such a character can never hope to be the anchor the picture desperately needs him to be. Kudos to Scott and everyone involved for a very even-handed showing toward Islam (the major villains are Christians, not Saracens, and Salah Al-Din comes off pretty well here), but without Balian grounding us the way he should, we aren't ever sure who to root for. When Salah Al-Din besieges Jerusalem at the end, it's damned hard to root against him (as the picture half-heartedly encourages you to do) because, well, Balian just doesn't rouse one's sympathies.
The performances vary. Liam Neeson plays the Qui-Gon/Batman's mentor role just fine; my only complaint is that he's not in the film long enough. Irons, as I said, is excellent, easily the best and most subtle performance in the picture. Csokas and Gleeson, both of them fine actors, and reduced to Saturday morning moustache twirling, a disappointment, and Eva Green never really nails Sybilla. Sometimes her charisma comes across, but other times she seems out of place and uncomfortable. Bloom himself is bogged down in the morass of a weak script, especially as regards him, and struggles through the whole picture to make his presence felt but fails. I don't really blame him he demonstrated ably in Troy that he can hold his own in large cast period epics and while a more seasoned actor might have been able to do a little more with Balian, the fault for his blandness can hardly be laid at Bloom's feet.
This is definitely a movie you'll want to wait for the DVD on. That way you can enjoy the pretty scenery and the fairly engaging battle and have the ability to skip some of the less enjoyable parts of the picture. Kingdom of Heaven could have been a great film, but in the end is merely serviceable, a picturebook of the crusades with little deeper impact.
The movie centers around Orlando Bloom's character, Balian, the son of a famous knight (Liam Neeson) who journeys to Jerusalem in 1184 to atone for his sins and those of his late wife. Once there, he gets caught up in the intrigue between the good leper king of Jerusalem (Ed Norton, though you would never know it) and the evil templars, led by Guy de Lugnisan (played by one of my faves, Marton Csokas). Of course Balian gets caught in the middle of this conflict. There's also a subplot with Guy's arab wife, Sybilla (Eva Green).
Kingdom is as you would expect a gorgeous spectacle, with knights and Saracens and, blessedly, a battle you can actually follow (Scott's attempts to ape Saving Private Ryan in Gladiator were an embarrassing, confused mess. He does far better here). Though the chaos of war is aptly captured, we can follow the proceedings fine, and the final battle is one of the better sequences in the film. We get sumptuous views of the desert, and of the teeming metropolis of Jerusalem, and of blue-lensed France, which looks as dead as the underworld next to the profusely colorful Holy Land. The production design is top notch and stunningly realized.
I was also pleased with a lot of the casting. Aside from Csokas, whom I'm always glad to see, Alexander Siddig, best known as Dr. Julian Bashir on DS9, pops up in a moderate sized role, looking older and wiser and, well, perfect in his part. Brendan Gleeson, whose work continues to please, also shows up as a one-note evil templar. And Jeremy Irons, who has been guilty of some of the worst overacting I've ever seen, is as sharp as ever I've seen him here as Tiberius, aid to the leper king.
One of the problems that plagues Kingdom is that the core of the film is less interesting than what surrounds it. Bloom is a nice guy and a decent actor, but he's simply outclassed by the likes of Neeson, Gleeson, Irons, etc. Balian is never well-sketched we never really know what makes him tick and as such is far less colorful than almost everyone around him (he's even sort of flat compared to Green's Sybilla, who is badly miscalculated herself). I don't particularly blame Bloom though a more talented if less charismatic actor probably could have done more with the part.
What makes Balian so uncompelling is the other serious flaw with the movie, a flaw you find in many films of this ilk. Simply put, Balian is a modern character with modern sensibilities thrust into a period piece. Nearly every other character fits in with the scenery and mode of the times (even if they are sometimes a little simplistic, like the snarling Guy); Balian is an anachronism, acting as a modern hero would act, but as a man reared in that world could not even imagine acting. This might have been okay if everyone had acted that way, but every other character except Sybilla is crafted to carefully fit in the world of 800 years ago. Balian's championing of modern values means he's cast adrift like a piece of flotsam on the tide; and such a character can never hope to be the anchor the picture desperately needs him to be. Kudos to Scott and everyone involved for a very even-handed showing toward Islam (the major villains are Christians, not Saracens, and Salah Al-Din comes off pretty well here), but without Balian grounding us the way he should, we aren't ever sure who to root for. When Salah Al-Din besieges Jerusalem at the end, it's damned hard to root against him (as the picture half-heartedly encourages you to do) because, well, Balian just doesn't rouse one's sympathies.
The performances vary. Liam Neeson plays the Qui-Gon/Batman's mentor role just fine; my only complaint is that he's not in the film long enough. Irons, as I said, is excellent, easily the best and most subtle performance in the picture. Csokas and Gleeson, both of them fine actors, and reduced to Saturday morning moustache twirling, a disappointment, and Eva Green never really nails Sybilla. Sometimes her charisma comes across, but other times she seems out of place and uncomfortable. Bloom himself is bogged down in the morass of a weak script, especially as regards him, and struggles through the whole picture to make his presence felt but fails. I don't really blame him he demonstrated ably in Troy that he can hold his own in large cast period epics and while a more seasoned actor might have been able to do a little more with Balian, the fault for his blandness can hardly be laid at Bloom's feet.
This is definitely a movie you'll want to wait for the DVD on. That way you can enjoy the pretty scenery and the fairly engaging battle and have the ability to skip some of the less enjoyable parts of the picture. Kingdom of Heaven could have been a great film, but in the end is merely serviceable, a picturebook of the crusades with little deeper impact.