ANOTHER epic from Ridley Scott and another stylish film, beautiful to look at but short on substance.
JUST like Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, Scott carries off Kingdom of Heaven with a certain lan but with nothing much to say.
After his recent forays into ancient Rome and modern war-torn Somalia, this time we are transported back to late-12th-century Jerusalem and the Crusades.
The Christian army occupies the city, to the chagrin of the Islamic Saracens.
When the fragile truce between them finally shatters and war erupts, a young devout knight, Balian (Orlando Bloom) enters the fray. The film soon transforms the innocent blacksmith into a burgeoning military genius.
Bloom is fine as the stoic warrior, and the obligatory romantic scenes with Eva Green show early promise but flatter to deceive.
The cast is excellent, with some of the finest actors around, but the material isn't up to their talents.
Scott's battle scenes involving thousands of warriors are impressive but somewhat anaemic and sanitised.
Kingdom of Heaven fails to address the complexity and offer any insights into one of the defining moments of history that has much resonance even to this day.
If it is fairly mindless entertainment you are after rather than fodder for the brain, Kingdom Of Heaven is just the ticket. Iwan Davies
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