Kingdom of Heaven - Dayton Daily News

'Kingdom of Heaven': Far-reaching to a fault

By ERIC ROBINETTE
Dayton Daily News

As sword and sandal epics go, the sandals have worn through and the sword's blade has dulled in Ridley Scott's ambitious but uninvolving "Kingdom of Heaven."

After director Scott revived the large-scale epic of ancient times with "Gladiator," a rash of movies with battles and blades aplenty broke out, ranging from the underrated "Troy" to the middling "King Arthur" to the interminable "Alexander." Signaling hopes of a return to form for the genre, the ads for "Kingdom" promote it as being "from the director of 'Gladiator.'"

20th Century Fox

'Kingdom of Heaven'

C+

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Eva Green, Martin Hancock, Michael Sheen, Nathalie Cox
Run time: 145 minutes
Release date: May 6, 2005
Rating: R for strong violence and epic warfare.
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I thought "Gladiator" was overpraised, so it pains me to say that "Kingdom of Heaven" is no "Gladiator." The simplest reason for that can be summed up in three words: no Russell Crowe.

"Kingdom of Heaven" gives us Orlando Bloom as Balian, a blacksmith who is mourning the death of his son and the suicide of his wife. He encounters his long-lost father (Liam Neeson) and eventually finds himself defending Jerusalem from Muslim invasion.

Bloom, best known as Legolas from the "Lord of the Rings" films, is a fine actor who makes a valiant effort to carry this movie, but unlike Crowe, he simply doesn't have the sheer charisma needed to energize a larger-than-life epic. Since I couldn't buy into Bloom, I couldn't buy into the movie's human story and "Kingdom of Heaven" never quite took wing for me, no matter how well made the rest of it was.

That the film looks terrific is a given with Scott behind the camera. More than any other director, Scott particularly excels at painting on a big canvas, whether his medium is "Alien" goo or the spaceships of "Blade Runner." "Kingdom" is also refreshingly free of the obvious computer fakery that drove "Gladiator" to an undeserved Oscar win for visual effects, to say nothing of its ridiculous Best Picture win.

This time, however, Scott is guilty not of visual overkill, but thematic overkill. "Kingdom of Heaven" is the rare movie that's far-reaching to a fault. Scott and screenwriter William Monahan mean to make an anti-war statement, specifically focusing on how religious fanaticism of any kind is dangerous. Some overheated ink has already been generated about how the Muslims in the film are the levelheaded, civil ones, while the Christians are the rash hotheads. Scott seems to be trying for a cross between "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down," his 2001 film about the doomed 1993 invasion of Mogadishu. The characters in "Black Hawk Down" were fairly indistinct, too, but the constant intense jeopardy in that film was ample compensation.

By contrast, "Kingdom of Heaven" spends so much time weaving its historical tapestry, it suffers from dull, talky patches and gives the human element short shrift. A romance between Balian and Sibylla (Eva Green), the princess of Jerusalem, feels perfunctory. In a talented cast that includes Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and David Thewlis, only Neeson and Ghassan Massoud (as Muslim leader Saladin) make notable impressions.

Without a strong emotional story or a magnetic leading man, "Kingdom of Heaven" feels diluted and remote. It's a movie with much to admire, but little to love.