Kingdom of Heaven(2005) * * 1/2
I sometimes wonder whether Ridley Scott randomly selects periods of history when he feels like doing something epic.
While watching Kingdom of Heaven, I wondered whether Ridley Scott employed the same method for picking his male lead. To date, I don't know whether Orlando Bloom is a good actor. For Black Hawk Down he convincingly fell out of a helicopter, for the Lord of the Rings he did a good job of not blinking and for Pirates of the Caribbean he did a credible job of playing a hero while Johnny Depp acted circles around him. For Kingdom of Heaven, Bloom does a decent job of playing a joyless brooding protagonist. In all of this though, Orlando Bloom never brings anything to the role that makes you believe that only Orlando Bloom could have done the job.
Though I particularly liked Edward Norton as the leprosy ridden King Baldwin. He carried himself with authority, even when he looked like was about to fall over, and given the fact that he wore a silver mask for the entire movie. One scene has King Baldwin riding a horse, and slouching to the side. Not because he is tired and sick man, but because he is a King and can slouch if he damn well pleases.
The rest of the cast is rounded out by some pretty good character actors. Its nice seeing Jeremy Irons and Professor Lupin from Harry Potter again. Also Eva Green did a good job of playing the movie's brunette bombshell.
With Kingdom of Heaven Ridley Scott shows that once again he can do the epic movie once again. The Siege of Jerusalem was particularly well done, especially in regard to the trebuchets.
However, Kingdom of Heaven was kind of boring. It seemed way too long, even though it wasn't that long. I also didn't like the pacing of the movie. It felt like the movie was skipping parts here and there. Especially with Balian, Orlando Bloom's character. He goes from being a blacksmith with little to no experience with a sword to laying waste to his enemies in armed combat. Orlando Bloom's joyless delivery also sucked the energy out of many scenes.
In conclusion, for fans of the actors, or the genre, I would recommend this movie. For the uncommitted or disinterest, I would skip Kingdom of Heaven for something else. Two and a half stars out of four.