I had high hopes for Ridley Scott’s latest release, Kingdom of Heaven. From the moment my eyes laid upon the trailer, I had this feeling that this movie was going to be something big.
I knew that this movie was something epic movie, story wise and visual wise, were going to be modeled after. I was excited for this movie and I couldn’t explain why.
Then, I saw it and everything went out the window.
Kingdom of Heaven left me with an empty feeling. Set in the 12th century, the story follows Balian, a young blacksmith (played by Orlando Bloom) who just recently lost his faith. It is at this moment in his life that he meets up with Godfrey (Liam Neeson) a remarkable knight and a Crusader.
Through a twist of fate, Balian travels down the path of knighthood and an epic journey ensues. On this journey, Balian finds love and friendship, but he also finds himself in the middle of a war for what is considered the Kingdom of Heaven.
To be blunt, I simply found this movie lacking emotion when it really needed it. After watching the trailer and the movie a second time, I realized that it was the trailer that killed this movie for me. Watching the trailer set me up for one movie and knocked me down by giving me something else.
At the time I found myself asking, “Who cares?”
Don’t get me wrong, the movie is not bad and does contain some great action sequences and a great underlining theme: that behind what many may see as a “religious war,” is indeed a war about wealth, land and power that has nothing to do with religion. Kingdom of Heaven just lacks the emotion that would have pushed it to the level of greatness.
When the movie was said and done I found myself not really caring about what had just happened.
Lessons were learned, lives were forever changed, but I simply just didn’t care for the characters. Unlike Scott’s Gladiator where you really do care about Maximus and what happens to him, Balian is someone you can easily forget.
The special features on the DVD, however, do make up some ground lost by the movie’s lack of emotional depth in areas. Kingdom of Heaven is a two-disc set that contains most of the special features on the second disc.
The first disc contains “The Pilgrim’s Guide,” which is a text-based commentary that gives viewers production notes and history facts of the time era in which Kingdom of Heaven takes place in. This is a nice feature when watching the movie the second time around.
Also included on the first disc is a sneak peak at the new movie Tristan and Isolde.
The landmark, so to speak, for disc two comes in the form of an interactive production grid. This grid gives the viewer the power to look at the behind-the-scene features in any way the viewer chooses.
With no less than 16 ways to watch this feature, the production grid gives viewers the chance to watch interviews with the director, cast members and crew members during pre-production, production and post-production.
This is a new and better way to watch behind-the-scenes features, as audiences not only get to choose when and at what time they can watch this feature, but they can also get an in-depth look from the points of view from someone other than the director and its star cast members.
Two other special features worthy of note are an A&E special and a History Channel feature. The A&E special, titled “Movie Real: Kingdom of Heaven” takes a look into the actual Crusades and how Kingdom of Heaven matches up against it.
It contains interviews from scholars such as Thomas F. Madden, Christopher MacEvitt and Jill Claster. “Hollywood vs. History” is The History Channel feature, hosted by Geoff Wawro, which looks at the historical facts and the fictitious facts of Kingdom of Heaven.
Other features include the theatrical trailer and Internet features that include creating the world of Kingdom of Heaven, Orlando Bloom talking about his character, production designs and costume designs.
Kingdom of Heaven is not a must have. The movie lacks emotions when it really needs it. However, the movie is not so bad sitting through it once more, but that’s only because you know what’s coming.
Despite that, this is a good movie that should not have bombed so badly at the box office (it only made $47 million; it cost $130 million to make).
The special features are interesting, especially for those who really know nothing of the Crusades. Surely not one of Ridley Scott’s best, but not all that bad either.
Movie: * * 1/2
DVD: * * *

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