Kingdom Of Heaven Film Review

Kingdom of Heaven: Ridley Scott’s epic account of the efforts of blacksmith Balian played by Orlando Bloom during the age of the Crusades, to defend the kingdom of Jerusalem from the grip of Saladin, who wants to strip leadership away from the Christians ruling. Probably not since 1492: Conquest of Paradise has Ridley Scott taken on a massive piece of history and attempted to recreate it on such a large scale. Benefited also by Scott’s world-building mythology. Not even with Gladiator, which took a fictional character and placed him within a significant time in Roman history really counts as such, but it’s worth making the comparison.

The central character who we follow through the course of the drama, is essentially the observer to the world that he/she is thrust into. The character stands as primarily the outsider, before being called to be involved with the central conflict of the story. Orlando Bloom is our lead actor and whom we trust to guide us through the story of such cultural significance. In Gladiator, Russell Crowe took the reigns and centre stage. Although he doesn’t have a spectacular emotional range as an actor goes, he did confidently create a brilliantly authoritative leader figure. Orlando Bloom, unfortunately, doesn’t provide any of those traits at all.

First up, the film is beautiful to look at with the sweeping shots of the Moroccan shooting location. The battle sequences themselves are choreographed brilliantly even if they do look like sub-Lord of the Rings sequences. There are background characters that show up, that all play a part in the proceedings and are pretty memorable. Especially unrecognisable is Edward Norton as King Baldwin of Jerusalem. All mask and eyes and completely memorising  – I wish he were in this film more. And yet the film doesn’t work. Mainly because Orlando Bloom is at the forefront. He is simply either too young or too wooden to convince us that he is the worn warrior that has to bare this baggage put upon him.

Most times, when he is either engaged in a sword fight or recovering from a long feat in his journey. He looks like he is posing for the latest advert from Calvin Klein. Smouldering can only get you so far, I’m afraid. The more significant actors backing him up; like Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson. Provide much better acting on display, and that’s a significant problem for a film of this scale. For all the spectacle and technical expertise backing the story. There is an apparent lack of depth and focus centred around the fight to control the kingdom itself. While much more emphasis is put on the relationship between Balian and the Queen of Jerusalem Sibylla played by Eva Green which isn’t that interesting.

I have no doubt that there is a better film buried within this one. Indeed, with more focus and better lead acting, the film could have been made engaging. As it is though, it’s dull; overlong, and either not well acted or over-acted too much. In the end; I felt like I learned less about such a significant event in history. There is visual splendour to be had which is worth a watch, so as a technical exercise, it’s okay, as a character study, it’s lacking.

2 and a half/ 5