Kingdom of Heaven

[robyoung]

Going to see this tonight!

I really hope i'm not let down as i have been with Troy, Alexander and King Arthur. The trailer looks fantastic and i'm sure Ridley can't mess it up, just hope Orlando is up to the job, i don't think he has the same screen presence as Russel Crowe. We'll see.....

Anyone else looking forward to it (or seen it!?)

What has the critical reaction been like?

Rob

[Gary D]

Metro gave to 2 stars this morning and empire gave it 3. i've been looking forward to this for ages, the only problem is that its going to be held up against Gladiator which is both envitable and unfair. my understanding is that it looks very nice but you dont really care what happens


you pays your money and makes ya choice!

fingers crossed!!!


Gary

[drbounce]

i saw it friday morning at my local ugc. i thought it was a good film with a decent enough story. it ended sooner than i thought it was going to (i had it in my head it lasted for 3 hours) i like scotts films and like most of the epics lateley yes including troy and king arthur

[Tejstar]

I'm a big fan of Ridley Scott. I think it is inevitable there will be comparisons made to Gladiator, I just hope there is enough to distinguish itself from it.

Rob, what were your thoughts?

[Dellboy]

Saw the film yesterday.

Good but not brilliant, but a good Sir Ridley film is better than most.

I got the feeling he didn't want to offend anyones religious believes.

Solid performances from Olanado Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jermy Irons, Edward Norton and Ghassan Massoud.

As usual, beautifully shot, action sequences are stunning but I feel there is a better film in there somewhere. There are rumours that Sir Ridleys' first cut of the film was 40-50 mins longer. Me thinks this will appear as a directors cut on dvd.

[robyoung]

OK, saw it Friday as planned and i'm sad to say overall i was dissapointed. I did have high expectations of the film, and by no means was it a bad film. Probably better than Troy and definitely better than Alexander. The acting was fine, i felt Bloom did a good job, Neeson was excellent. And the battle scenes were awesome, couldnt fault them.

There was just no real emotion in the story, the 'bad guys' were actually quite nice, and the good guys were actually quite bad! In the end you didnt really care who won or lost, thats the trouble, you felt no attachment to the charachters as i did with Maximus in Gladiator or William Wallace in Braveheart. This is not Blooms fault, but the fault of the script writer as has been mentioned i dont think they wanted to offend anyone!

What you need is a real villain and a real hero and this didnt have either, maybe they should not stick too close to historical 'fact'/political correctness and be a bit more creative.

it is worth seeing (even just for the battle scenes), but don't expect too much.

6/10

Cheers Rob

[Tejstar]

I'll wait for the dvd release on this one methinks!

[robyoung]

Also my experience wasn't helped, by having to go and complain about the picture going in and out of focus every 10 seconds or so. I can't believe the rest of the audience were willing to sit through the whole film like it! luckily it was fixed as soon as i complained!

Rob

[lovemunkey187]

I'm guilty of comparing this to Gladiator. historical epic, directed by Ridley Scott, whose gonna blame me?

And I didn't think that it was as good, as has already been stated you just don't give enough of a damn about most of the characters. Also I thought Orlando Bloom was too young for the role, perhaps young is the wrong word, maybe gravitas or precence would be a better choice, perhaps even inexperience. This does not mean that he's bad in this role but just the wrong shape for the part. If that makes any sense.

[Thunder]

Saw this yesterday and was disappointed I had high hopes for it and although it started off well I think as others have said you just don't care enough about the characters. Their parts are too shallow, also I think Orlando is still just a boy and definitely not a man. Somebody like Eric Banna (not sure of spelling) would have been much better, somebody whos a bit haggard and chiseled. Battle scenes were good in places but some of the filming style was a little frenetic for me and I didn't think that you could really make out what was going on some of the time.

[robyoung]

Originally Posted by Thunder

Their parts are too shallow, also I think Orlando is still just a boy and definitely not a man. Somebody like Eric Banna (not sure of spelling) would have been much better, somebody whos a bit haggard and chiseled.

Yeah, Bana would've been good, he was the best thing about Troy! However i dont think it would have made much difference given the script. It just needs a complete overhaul to make you care about what happens! in need of some good old fashioned Heroes and pantomime villains!

So when will we get to see another decent epic? IMO Gladiator was the last (not including LOTR) and has been nothing close since. Anything on the horizon? i remember reading about Terrence Maliks retelling of the Pocahontas story (forget the name) with Colin Farrell (although i think they've made Pocahontas a bit older! :lol that could be good.....

Rob

[dawnthief]

Haven't seen it yet but do want to, but have heard that Scott had to cut over an hour from the film, which might have added to the story

[Miyazaki]

don't want to spoil it, so will say that I thought it was excellent, I was hoping that it wouldn't be all action, there is some historical accuracy there, not a lot, but enough to give people the jist of the time period. Fantastic cinematography, quite similar to gladiator in that way, i'd give it a 7.5/10.

[Tardis]

R1 Release is October 14.

[Lex]

Saw this last night and have to agree completely with what everyone else has said... wanted it to be better than it was, but at the same time it wasn't a bad film. I thought Bloom was definitely a little lacking, he is a strong actor, but he doesn't chew up the scenery like a Russel Crowe... Sir Ridley sure can make a film look good though, I thought that this was one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen - the cgi city of Jerusalem was outstanding, as were the battle scenes. and I love the way Ridley fills every shot with such texture: there is always, snow, or dust particles, or fire, or smoke or something dancing on the light.
Best thing about the movie though was the score - just ordered the CD