Epic, in a word. That's the main thing about this movie - it's epic. That doesn't mean it was brilliant, but it was certainly good at being big.
I like that it didn't choose sides. It didn't try to show either all the Christians or all the Muslims as being evil, just different individuals being dicks sometimes (cough mostly Christians cough). Orlando Bloom plays a blacksmith who escapes his ruined life with the barbarians of Europe and sails to the holy land. Soon he's a knight, and has his own little army.
There is no real conclusionary battle, and while the ending is happy, I suppose, it's not any more perfect than could be expected of real life.
Which I like. Usually something this epic will have some kind of classic build up and conclusion, and while this does, in a way, it's subverted in that the protagonist realises that the war for Jerusalem between these two religions that are pretty much indistinguishable is pointless. It's a nice place, but if someone else wants it that badly let them have it. The Christians have Europe anyway, and they've ruined it. In the end he discards his religion and heads home with his girl, no matter his knighthood and her queenlyness. Right at the end he sees a bush, but it's not burning. It's beginning to flower as is his new life, which no god is part of anymore. he looks up at his new wife and the shot is just like his dead one looking up at him at the start of the movie. Some guys on horses trot by, and ask who he is. He tells them that he's a blacksmith. The man says he's the king of England. He nods, and repeats that he's a blacksmith, then turns and heads back inside.
If only the Lionheart was played by Sean Connery, ala 'Robing Hood: Prince of Thieves'. That would have been hilarious.
The battle scenes were epic, and brought 'Rome: Total War' to mind. The intricacies of people's plotting and the motivations of each little faction were well orchestrated, though the actual speech element of the script was sometimes clunky. The acting was fair, and there were several familiar faces. I especially liked the masked leper king of Jerusalem, he was alright.
There is no real conclusionary battle, and while the ending is happy, I suppose, it's not any more perfect than could be expected of real life.
Which I like. Usually something this epic will have some kind of classic build up and conclusion, and while this does, in a way, it's subverted in that the protagonist realises that the war for Jerusalem between these two religions that are pretty much indistinguishable is pointless. It's a nice place, but if someone else wants it that badly let them have it. The Christians have Europe anyway, and they've ruined it. In the end he discards his religion and heads home with his girl, no matter his knighthood and her queenlyness. Right at the end he sees a bush, but it's not burning. It's beginning to flower as is his new life, which no god is part of anymore. he looks up at his new wife and the shot is just like his dead one looking up at him at the start of the movie. Some guys on horses trot by, and ask who he is. He tells them that he's a blacksmith. The man says he's the king of England. He nods, and repeats that he's a blacksmith, then turns and heads back inside.
If only the Lionheart was played by Sean Connery, ala 'Robing Hood: Prince of Thieves'. That would have been hilarious.
The battle scenes were epic, and brought 'Rome: Total War' to mind. The intricacies of people's plotting and the motivations of each little faction were well orchestrated, though the actual speech element of the script was sometimes clunky. The acting was fair, and there were several familiar faces. I especially liked the masked leper king of Jerusalem, he was alright.
Kingdom of Heaven: 45.8