Movie Review: The Kingdom Of Heaven

I am tempted to review Revenge of the Sith, but that's been done to death. Suffice to say that it has its sucesses, despite itself. It's too bad that George Lucas can't write.

Instead, I'll review The Kingdom Of Heaven. This is Ridley Scott's take on the Crusaders, specifically the period leading up to the fall of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. But the story begins in France, where Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson, in another of his 20-minute specials) has come to look for his bastard son, Balian (Orlando Bloom). Balian's wife has just committed suicide, and Godfrey entices Balian to join him in returning to Jerusalem.

The story focuses on Balian's ascension to his father's lordship, the political strife within Jerusalem, and the relationship with the surrounding Muslim world. Balian inherits his father's estate, his friendship with King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), and his enmity with both Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas) and Raynald of Chatillion (Brendan Gleeson). Eventually, Balian is charged with defence of Jerusalem against the Muslim army, led by Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), and must find a way to protect the people of the city.

There are some very good elements of the movie. For this type of film, it's fairly historically accurate. Balian is a composite character, and neither he nor his father match well against any single historical figure. But otherwise, the events depicted follow broadly the outline of history. Likewise, the depiction of life and combat in the 12th century seems to be relatively decent, at least no hideous clunkers for an attentive novice like myself.

The story itself has good and bad elements. The plot points surrounding the actual historic figures are most interesting, especially the relationships between Baldwin IV, Guy de Lusignan, and Raynald, as well as Saladin's behavior. In this sense, the historical accuracies contribute to the movie's strongest points. However, Balian's development is a bit stunted, and his relationship with the King's sister Sibylla (Eva Green) is particulary sketchy.

The movie suffers from a lack of understanding of the concept of an 'epic'. This story cries out for an epic treatment. Yet we're left with the impression that the events all take place within a couple months -- instead of twenty years. Another problem is Ridley Scott's annoying tendency to use a bizarre stuttery effect -- almost the opposite of slow motion -- in his action scenes. He did this to some extent in Gladiator, but here it's much worse.

So ultimately, the movie does OK. It's got some obvious flaws, but as a whole it's saved by an interesting history, backed by very good performances by Norton, Csokas, Gleeson, and Massoud. Its not difficult to ignore the bad parts and enjoy the good, which ultimately makes it worth watching.

Verdict: Flawed but Entertaining
Score: 6 of 10