Lost Review #3

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Ridley Scott

--This is the film that really made me question whether or not I was a fan of Ridley Scott. I recall going into this film with such high expectations that I can't believe I wasn't surprised when I was disappointed by a movie that I'm sure I had no idea what it was really about.--

The struggle in making an historical epic film within the past two years, or should I say, in the post-Lord of the Rings era, is not going well. It didn't go well for Oliver Stone, Wolfgang Peterson or Antoine Fuqua, but going into Kingdom of Heaven I only assumed that Ridley Scott wouldn't fail. I was wrong. Kingdom of Heaven is, as of this point, the most disappointing film of 2005. The story lacked structure and direction. The characters lacked depth and points of interest. The performances were relatively sub-par and ultimately, the battle scenes were no longer cool. Ridley Scott did make an effort however to make his epic battles original. He went with a similar approach as did Martin Scorsese in Gangs of New York's opening battle, with slow motion attacks and stress on characters emotions. Unfortunately, these characters emotions didn't help me as an audience member care about them or even understand what they were fighting for. The film takes place in the midst of the Crusades. My background knowledge of this era is slim, however there is very little guidance throughout the story to enlighten viewers such as myself. Balain (Orlando Bloom) is but a blacksmith until his father, Lord Godfrey, a famous and respected Crusader (Liam Neeson) rides in, knights him and gives him his oath to protect the helpless and so on and so forth, really a bunch of blather that was supposed to be inspirational. Upon becoming a knight, Balain is instantly a strategic genius. Somewhere and somehow, from when he was a blacksmith to when he became a knight some two days later, he knew everything about battle, not to mention, only hours after he decided to go along with his father and only minutes after he was taught how to fight correctly, he was one of the few who lived through an ambush. Balain's honor and respect for his opposition gained him respect within his realm of people. This honor and respect, however came out of no where. His character was, put simply, quite boring. He really showed no emotion towards anything and on top of that, Orlando Bloom can't act. Put less bluntly, Bloom doesn't fit the character, just as he doesn't fit any of the characters he ever plays. How he continues to get these roles is beyond my knowledge. Overall, Kingdom of Heaven had its entertaining parts but it was so disappointing and on occasion, boring that I can't help but say I didn't like it.
**
05/08/05