movie review - Kingdom of Heaven

Starring: Orlando Bloom
Directed by: Ridley Scott

I am a big Ridley Scott fan and have been ever since Alien and I was really looking forward to this movie being released on DVD but it didn't turn out to be as good as I thought it would be.

True to his craft Ridley did a fantastic job of directing. Some of the scenes, especially the battle scenes were fantastic. If you like big battle scenes or one-on-one hand-to-hand fighting scenes then you have got some treats in this movie. there is some great castle sieging stuff and some equally great small fight scenes..

But if you are looking for a great story or a great love story then this movie disappoints.

The story just doesn't flow very well.

You tell me if this sounds typical:

A young blacksmith (Bloom) finds out he is actually the bastard son of a powerful baron (Liam Neeson) and through trials, tribulations, and an internal sense of honor, he rises to become a great man and leader.

Sound familiar? It's pretty much the fodder of any epic fantasy story.

As far as the love story goes I thought that there could be some real potential in this but it never panned out. The leading lady, although pretty, just doesn't have any star charisma and the chemistry between her and Bloom was flat.

The writing, I thought was just the weakest part of the movie. The story seemed to meander quite a bit and it lacked any real focus. We hopped around from story line to story line.

In summary: If you love sword fighting and a good castle siege then this is the movie for you! It has plenty of both. But if you want an intense story with memorable characters then you are going to have to re-rent Excalibur.