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Devastated by the death of his newborn child and the resulting suicide of his wife, Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith in medieval France, is trying to get on with his life. One day, while he’s working, a knight named Godfrey (Liam Neeson) arrives, revealing that he’s Balian’s father. He urges Balian to join him in Jerusalem, to take part in the Crusades, and Balian eventually agrees, hoping that it will absolve his sins—and those of his wife.
On their journey to Jerusalem, Godfrey teaches Balian how to be a knight. He trains him to fight—but he also trains him to be honorable, to be a loyal follower of the king of Jerusalem no matter what happens. Once in Jerusalem, following the death of his father, Balian does as he promised. He returns to King Baldwin (Edward Norton), who knows he’s approaching his last days, and he aids the king in his conflict with the Islamic leader, Saladin (Ghassan Massoud)—all the while rising up to be a great and respected leader.
I had a hard time getting into Kingdom of Heaven. To begin with, the plot isn’t always easy to follow. I’ve studied the Crusades in history classes, of course, so I understood the gist of it, but the film doesn’t really give enough background information into what was happening during this period of the Crusades. Perhaps in an effort to fit in as much as possible without making it a four-hour movie, the story is disjointed, often skipping from one scene to another, with transitions that often don’t make sense. And, to make matters worse, there are a large number of characters to keep track of—many of which are often difficult to distinguish.
Orlando Bloom, though definitely eye candy, gives a dry performance. The melancholy and indifference with which he portrays Balian in the beginning of the film continues—even after he becomes a powerful leader. He never seems especially passionate about much of anything—and it’s hard to watch a movie and get excited about the action when the main character doesn’t seem all that excited, either. Liam Neeson and Edward Norton both played their roles to perfection—but Bloom, as the movie’s star, made the movie drag.
On the scale of action films involving long battle scenes and sword fights, Kingdom of Heaven is still immensely better than Alexander, but it still isn’t nearly as good as Gladiator. Check it out for the effects and the epic battle scenes (if you enjoy that sort of thing), but don’t expect to be especially moved.
