Brent's AV Club

Synopsis: Balian of Ibelin travels to Jerusalem during the crusades of the 12th century, and there he finds himself as the defender of the city and its people.

My Thoughts: As a whole, I enjoyed the movie. I had a few things that I disliked, but the good far outweighed the bad. I am a big fan of epic adventures and Kingdom Of Heaven lives up to the billing.

The story is your basic epic tale, which is one of my dislikes. But as I got to thinking, what else would make it "epic"? I don't really have the answer to that question, hence the reason that I am not a screenwriter. This movie was directed by Ridley Scott, the same man who directed Gladiator and you could definitely see the similarities in the film. Bear with me here; If you combine Gladiator, Braveheart, a little bit of Lord Of The Rings (ROTK) and The Patriot, the result is Kingdom Of Heaven. The difference is basically the time frame of the film.

I say it is like all other epic adventures because the main character is a blacksmith who in what seems to be a matter of days becomes a brilliant war hero and king. Do you ever notice these Joe Nobodies always rise to glory? Like Lord Of The Rings, mere mortals seem to rise to epic levels to fend off a far superior army when they are clearly outnumbered by at least 10:1. The film is a tad over 2 hours long, has several key fights, but nothing as extensive as the Lord Of The Rings. KOH, as usual, has a romance story added in as a filler; I personally feel the love angle is pointless in this movie. At first, I thought the dialogue was shaky, alternating between modern and 12th century, but that was just a couple of lines and I ended up having no grief with the language.

So far I have been bashing the film, but I do and did enjoy watching all 2:20 of it. From start to finish its got a gripping storyline and it really gets you into the movie. If you are a fan of epic adventures and long movies, you will enjoy this one. It's not obsessively long, as it's just long enough to get the entire story played out for the viewer.

Rating: I would rank Kingdom Of Heaven just below (well a few notches below) Braveheart and just ahead of Gladiator. I give the film 3.5 Pretzels (out of 5)



Closing Touch: If you are a fan of long, epic adventures this is a movie you should check out. However don't be disappointed if it is very similar to the rest of the group. You will be entertained by the fight scenes (which awesomely lack tons of special effects) and by the tale of heroism displayed by Orlando Blooms character, Bailan.

KOH Trailer