Kingdom of Heaven begins as Balian (Orlando Bloom), a young French blacksmith, is mourning the loss of his wife and young son. The religious wars raging in the far-off Holy Land seem remote to him, yet he is pulled into that immense drama. Amid the pageantry and intrigues of medieval Jerusalem he falls in love, grows into a leader, and ultimately calls upon all his courage and skill to defend the city against staggering odds.

Destiny comes seeking Balian in the form of a great knight, Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), a Crusader briefly home to France from fighting in the East. Revealing himself as Balian's father, Godfrey shows him the true meaning of knighthood and takes him on a journey across continents to the fabled Holy City. In Jerusalem at that moment - between the Second and Third Crusades - a precarious peace is being upheld through the efforts of its enlightened Christian king, Baldwin IV, and aided by his advisor Tiberias (Jeremy Irons), and the military control sponsored by the legendary Muslim leader Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). But Baldwin's days are numbered as contentious factions motivated by fanaticism, greed, and jealousy among the Crusaders threaten to shatter the truce.

King Baldwin's vision of peace - a "kingdom of heaven" - is shared by a handful of knights, including Godfrey of Ibelin, who have sworn to uphold it with their lives, honor and considerable influence. As Godfrey passes his sword to his son, he also passes the torch of a sacred oath: to protect the helpless, safeguard the peace, and work toward harmony between religions and cultures, so that a kingdom of heaven can flourish on earth.If all this is starting to sound stuffy and hopelessly idealistic, you're catching on. In any case, Balian takes the sword and steps into history.

Kindom of Heaven, I have to confess, isn't a film that I've been losing sleep over. In light of the recent plethora of sweeping, big-budget epics (too many of them starring Orlando Bloom) I entered the theater with a both front pockets full of misgivings. In fairness I must also confess that Kingdom of Heaven ultimately won me over, but my many qualms were nevertheless well-founded. While it's unquestionably true that the entire epic genre has been beaten into the ground, director Ridley Scott certainly has a legitimate claim to the turf. Five years ago his take on the sprawling historical epic Gladiator scored a Best Picture Oscar and, though in my opinion terribly overrated, went a long way toward boosting the genre.

Nonetheless, even the worthy offerings among the spate of also-rans that have crowded the multiplex's after the Lord of the Rings phenomenon, (i.e. Troy) have mostly foundered in the shadow of Peter Jackson's triumph. Kingdom of Heaven (nevermind that it's a thumbs-up film) is destined to suffer by comparison. It's chief Achilles heal (if you will) is it's epic absence of character development. Though it gets by on it's compelling historical story-telling, and impressive visual sense, so little time is devoted to establishing characters that the audience ends up giving a crap about that the film, though admirable in many ways, is hardly memorable. Beyond Balian none of the characters manage to remain long in your cortex once they're off the screen. When contrasted to the LOTR series where practically every character is compelling enough to spawn hundreds of websites and their own fan clubs, Kingdom of Heaven bearly manages to rise above marginality. Understandably Balian is the main character and the rest are side roles, but even he wasn't developed to the point where the audience truly understands his motives.

On a personal level my biggest problem with the film is Orlando Bloom. As far as I'm concerned he's never proven himself as a screen presence beyond his obvious flavor-of-the-month pretty boy status. This is the first role that I have liked him in since Legolas, and though he's certainly no Russell Crowe, he at least manages to carry the film with a lot more aplomb than he did in Troy.

Bloom has reached the point in his career where he desperately needs to prove himself outside the arena of the big-budget period piece (don't forget Pirates of the Carribean) lest he be remain mired in his tired travails. (That was me waxing Shakespearean). At some point a movie star needs to demonstrate that he can do this thing called acting wearing nothing more than a tee shirt and a pair of levis. The rest of the actors, while certainly great in their own right, are almost not worth mentioning, because the script left them by the wayside. Kingdom of Heaven certainly doesn't do Jeremy Irons or Liam Neeson any favors, though I supoose they acquit themselves as well as could be expected.

Overall I'm going to thumb the film up - the battle sequences are crisp and powerful and despite it's shortcomings there is quite a bit to recommend it. It's going to take a few eons, I'm afraid, before I'll be looking forward to another grand, sweeping historical epic. Until then, Kingdom of Heaven isn't a bad way to go out.

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