film: kingdom of heaven

[MaDMAn_Project]

Review: Kingdom Of Heaven

The new Ridley Scott Film, Kingdom Of Heaven.
Starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons.

The film traces the journey of Orlando Bloom as he goes from a penniless blacksmith, bastard son of a Baron (Liam Neeson) in England to a crusading knight in Jerusalem.

Unfortunately this film runs far too long at around 160 mins. While it's production value$ are obviously present it's craft is not. Yet another formulaic piece from Scott who continues to use the now tired techniques from such films as Blackhawk Down.

If I see one more dizzying shot of fast frame 16mm I'm going to scream! If you love your popcorn though then grab a coke an choctop too, you'll need them for this one. If not wait till it's a midday movie.

 

[onetwothreefour]

film: kingdom of heaven (ridley scott)

vote now

 

[Banquo]

ridley scott has been losing his film geek credibility. blade runner and alien are classics, but gladiator??? hopefully, this will be decent.

 

[Belisarius]

I'm really looking forward to this film, as I have yet to see any good film about the Crusades, which I consider a particularly fascinating (if brutal) period of world history.

 

[MaDMAn_Project]

Thanks for putting the poll in for me Onetwothreefour


Belisarius, after watching this film I'm still yet to see a good film about the crusades which is something I'm interested in too.

 

[eltoro]

Why can't someone make a good sword and armour film. I love Lord Of The Rings for the story and the action, yet the emotional scenes are lacking, and it's overplayed by almost all the actors ( Andy Serkis was awesome as Gollum though), and all the mimic film's Troy, Alexander, and now this just get worse and worse.

 

[jasonlee]

this is stupid, are we voting for a prediction or have some of you seen advanced screenings?

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

Orlando Bloom. Yumm.

 

[Stasis]

Beli, save your money, it sucked.

 

[jasonlee]

I saw it, must say It had some good elements to it, I blame Scott's storytelling though, as usual, great acting, sweet direction technically. But it lacked in getting me into the story. still though, I did like it enough to say 3 stars.

 

[jasonlee]

also the film is 145 mins, but without credits, about 2 hrs and 18 mins, gotta remember credits take the running time too, especially on epics, on normal films, maybe but a few mins. so its not 160 mins.

 

[L2R]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Not the best film ever but nice and solid.

 

[wesmdow]

this movie was god awful. bleh.

dont see it.

 

[Belisarius]

Believe it or not, I liked it, though I'll admit that it isn't Oscar material. It's slow and uneven at parts, but on the whole I liked it a lot. Then again, I've always been a sucker for bad movies, and the fact that the movie was a present for someone else means that I'd better like it for $13 (with discount).

 

[rcebborn]

it was really bad i went to see it wit ma friends n they hated it!

 

[zag0r]

entirely predictable going-through-the-motions yawnfest.

that said, it really is worth watching just for the sheer glee brendan gleeson takes in his scenes as reynald :D

 

[drEaMtiMe*@#]

i lurve orlando bloom but i just can't bring myself to watch any of these latest epic movies. ie. Troy, King Arthur, and now Kingdom of Heaven. they just all seem like such typical blockbuster films that focus on nothing more than the battle sequences and epitomising the latest of high technology. which shits me to be honest, cos i actually love history and think i'd really enjoy watching them if they weren't made for the sole purpose of being a *spectacle*.

bleh.

 

[linusSL]

i thought this movie lacked direction for large periods, the start was just so disjointed. I think maybe i am getting over this epic movie genre, i think it has been done to death a bit lately. Way too cheesy inplaces aswell, Orlando is just not beleivable as the main hero of a movie. I see him more as a bit player similar to his Legolas character.

 

[DemonsFall]

The battle scenes, special effects, set designs and what not were all good, but other than that it just sucked. I don't know exactly what to call it, but the flow of the story was just horrible.

(Minor Spoilers) From the beginning of the movie up until he gets to Jerusalem seems very rushed and unnatural, it is really just horrible film making. It was honestly some of the worst storytelling I have ever seen. Like when the movie starts off, there are two short scenes before the main character is basically off on his journey. There's hardly any back story given. Next thing you know, he's already learned how to fight in a 2 minute training session and takes on a shitload of guys like it's nothing. It just seemed so ridiculous, at least to me. They did not take ANY time to even try to draw you into the story or the characters. It's like they were too concerned with getting to the battles to even bother focusing on the story at all for the first half hour.

It seems like it was intended to be longer, like there's about 40 minutes or so that was cut out with complete disregard to what it would do to the movie. The studio executives probably said it ran too long and demanded that they shorten it. Either that, or it was just horribly scripted to begin with, but I honestly don't think anyone would've made a movie like this on purpose. Seriously, I can not describe how bad the first half hour (or more) of this movie is, I think you have to see it for yourself to understand what I'm talking about. It's just doesn't seem right. I honestly don't think there's anyway a director could have planned for his film to play out like this.

 

[Kataklysm]

I agree, character development and storytelling where not handled well. The whole movie felt very contrived, so that by the end, I really didn't care what happened.

A good looking film, but lacking in all other areas.