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I watched Kingdom of Heaven today...

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mediocre film, CRAP lead actor.....

worth renting for a laugh if you have a kickass surround setup and some beer/wine/whisky......

not worth buying

 
Originally posted by: PingSpike
I wasn't expecting much when I rented this movie, in fact I thought it was going to kind of suck. But it was a good movie I thought. My only complaint was Orlando Bloom's character seemed to be hastily introduced at the beginning. And we don't really have any idea why he's already so good with weapons. I realize he was a blacksmith and therefore had some experience with them, but didn't most blacksmiths back then mostly just shoe horses?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that bugged me as well. I enjoyed the movie, but Balian (Orlando's character) being a decent swordsman didn't really jibe for me. We get one scene of Liam Neeson training him in swordplay (IIRC) and then he's this leader in Jerusalem all of a sudden. There definitely could have been a bit more character development or some back story for Balian and the princess in particular to explain that, I think.

I guess they had to compress events a bit to keep the running time down, but still......

Not to mention, I have no idea why they wasted Edward Norton in this movie. They could have cast anyone in the role since he wears a mask 99% of the movie and he was hardly recognizable when they took the mask off at one point.
 
Originally posted by: Encryptic
Originally posted by: PingSpike
I wasn't expecting much when I rented this movie, in fact I thought it was going to kind of suck. But it was a good movie I thought. My only complaint was Orlando Bloom's character seemed to be hastily introduced at the beginning. And we don't really have any idea why he's already so good with weapons. I realize he was a blacksmith and therefore had some experience with them, but didn't most blacksmiths back then mostly just shoe horses?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that bugged me as well. I enjoyed the movie, but Balian (Orlando's character) being a decent swordsman didn't really jibe for me. We get one scene of Liam Neeson training him in swordplay (IIRC) and then he's this leader in Jerusalem all of a sudden. There definitely could have been a bit more character development or some back story for Balian and the princess in particular to explain that, I think.

I guess they had to compress events a bit to keep the running time down, but still......

Not to mention, I have no idea why they wasted Edward Norton in this movie. They could have cast anyone in the role since he wears a mask 99% of the movie and he was hardly recognizable when they took the mask off at one point.
Click to expand...

holy crap i had no clue ed norton was in this movie! i saw it and don't remember him at all, but I checked IMDB and saw him on it!
 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: Encryptic
Originally posted by: PingSpike
I wasn't expecting much when I rented this movie, in fact I thought it was going to kind of suck. But it was a good movie I thought. My only complaint was Orlando Bloom's character seemed to be hastily introduced at the beginning. And we don't really have any idea why he's already so good with weapons. I realize he was a blacksmith and therefore had some experience with them, but didn't most blacksmiths back then mostly just shoe horses?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that bugged me as well. I enjoyed the movie, but Balian (Orlando's character) being a decent swordsman didn't really jibe for me. We get one scene of Liam Neeson training him in swordplay (IIRC) and then he's this leader in Jerusalem all of a sudden. There definitely could have been a bit more character development or some back story for Balian and the princess in particular to explain that, I think.

I guess they had to compress events a bit to keep the running time down, but still......

Not to mention, I have no idea why they wasted Edward Norton in this movie. They could have cast anyone in the role since he wears a mask 99% of the movie and he was hardly recognizable when they took the mask off at one point.
Click to expand...

holy crap i had no clue ed norton was in this movie! i saw it and don't remember him at all, but I checked IMDB and saw him on it!
Click to expand...

Yup. I was interested in seeing this partly because I heard he was in it but that was a disappointment. Great actor but pointless casting in this movie. 🙁

If you watch it, you can tell it's him towards the end when they take his mask off and reveal his face eaten away by leprosy, but even then it's not that obvious. His voice is recognizable, though.
 
well lets see... you film in Morocco. Do you fly in 1500 Arabs (in the middle of the Gulf War mind you) to play the rolls of extras? Or do you use the locals, who, in quick flash screens certainly can pass as Arabs to 99% of your viewing audiance?

Talk about splitting freakin hairs.

Do you get upset when Canadians play rolls of Americans? Or Americans play rolls of British etc etc...

 
Originally posted by: Homerboy
well lets see... you film in Morocco. Do you fly in 1500 Arabs (in the middle of the Gulf War mind you) to play the rolls of extras? Or do you use the locals, who, in quick flash screens certainly can pass as Arabs to 99% of your viewing audiance?

Talk about splitting freakin hairs.

Do you get upset when Canadians play rolls of Americans? Or Americans play rolls of British etc etc...
Click to expand...

Not to mention, after you have flown/bussed/clown car'd in 1500 arabs...what's the chance they won't start a real war?

 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: Encryptic
Originally posted by: PingSpike
I wasn't expecting much when I rented this movie, in fact I thought it was going to kind of suck. But it was a good movie I thought. My only complaint was Orlando Bloom's character seemed to be hastily introduced at the beginning. And we don't really have any idea why he's already so good with weapons. I realize he was a blacksmith and therefore had some experience with them, but didn't most blacksmiths back then mostly just shoe horses?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that bugged me as well. I enjoyed the movie, but Balian (Orlando's character) being a decent swordsman didn't really jibe for me. We get one scene of Liam Neeson training him in swordplay (IIRC) and then he's this leader in Jerusalem all of a sudden. There definitely could have been a bit more character development or some back story for Balian and the princess in particular to explain that, I think.

I guess they had to compress events a bit to keep the running time down, but still......

Not to mention, I have no idea why they wasted Edward Norton in this movie. They could have cast anyone in the role since he wears a mask 99% of the movie and he was hardly recognizable when they took the mask off at one point.
Click to expand...

holy crap i had no clue ed norton was in this movie! i saw it and don't remember him at all, but I checked IMDB and saw him on it!
Click to expand...

Neither did I actually! But yes, I can see him as the king. Although I don't remember recognizing his voice.

Yeah I understand why it was tightly put together, but I still think it would have been worth it to put a little more back story in, and perhaps give his father and him more time together. We understood that he was already a decent swordsman, but not why. And he appeared to be an excellent swordsman by the end of the movie. He would realisticly need a combination of training and experience to be believable.

He only trained him with the sword for like 5 minutes, and we barely even knew liam nessans character before he died.

Aside from that though I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The pacing was good, attention was paid to characters development but was broken up by action enough that it didn't start to become stale. It was also a fair portrayal I thought, and didn't unfairly demonize either side.

The reason I didn't see this movie in the theaters is the previews just made it look boring. And I'd also seen so many "epic" battle movies recently I just wasn't interested. I notice that the latest trailers for it on video horribly misrepresent it by trying to make it out to be a total action movie so they've come circle.
 
Originally posted by: PingSpike
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: Encryptic
Originally posted by: PingSpike
I wasn't expecting much when I rented this movie, in fact I thought it was going to kind of suck. But it was a good movie I thought. My only complaint was Orlando Bloom's character seemed to be hastily introduced at the beginning. And we don't really have any idea why he's already so good with weapons. I realize he was a blacksmith and therefore had some experience with them, but didn't most blacksmiths back then mostly just shoe horses?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that bugged me as well. I enjoyed the movie, but Balian (Orlando's character) being a decent swordsman didn't really jibe for me. We get one scene of Liam Neeson training him in swordplay (IIRC) and then he's this leader in Jerusalem all of a sudden. There definitely could have been a bit more character development or some back story for Balian and the princess in particular to explain that, I think.

I guess they had to compress events a bit to keep the running time down, but still......

Not to mention, I have no idea why they wasted Edward Norton in this movie. They could have cast anyone in the role since he wears a mask 99% of the movie and he was hardly recognizable when they took the mask off at one point.
Click to expand...

holy crap i had no clue ed norton was in this movie! i saw it and don't remember him at all, but I checked IMDB and saw him on it!
Click to expand...

Neither did I actually! But yes, I can see him as the king. Although I don't remember recognizing his voice.

Yeah I understand why it was tightly put together, but I still think it would have been worth it to put a little more back story in, and perhaps give his father and him more time together. We understood that he was already a decent swordsman, but not why. And he appeared to be an excellent swordsman by the end of the movie. He would realisticly need a combination of training and experience to be believable.

He only trained him with the sword for like 5 minutes, and we barely even knew liam nessans character before he died.

Aside from that though I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The pacing was good, attention was paid to characters development but was broken up by action enough that it didn't start to become stale. It was also a fair portrayal I thought, and didn't unfairly demonize either side.

The reason I didn't see this movie in the theaters is the previews just made it look boring. And I'd also seen so many "epic" battle movies recently I just wasn't interested. I notice that the latest trailers for it on video horribly misrepresent it by trying to make it out to be a total action movie so they've come circle.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

Good post.

I definitely have to say it was nice to see a good historical epic movie for a change. "Troy" and "Alexander" were both a waste of a rental.
 
Is this movie worth owning (ie. seeing more than once)? I told everyone not to buy me any movies for Christmas but got it anyway. There are only certain movies I really like seeing more than once (Star Wars, LOTR, Fletch, etc.). I figure this isn't one. I could (1) sell it on ebay for probably $15+, (2) just rent it for $.99, (3) Profit. 😀
 
Originally posted by: PingSpike
And we don't really have any idea why he's already so good with weapons. I realize he was a blacksmith and therefore had some experience with them, but didn't most blacksmiths back then mostly just shoe horses?
Click to expand...

what, they didn't explain it well enough for you in pirates of the carribbean and lord of the rings?
 
:laugh:

If you're made about that, wonder how the japanese feel that an American person wrote a story about a deep Japanese culture figure then have an almost all Chinese cast playing the top rolls for Memoirs of a Geisha. If you want to know about Geishas then watch Zatoichi, even though its a samurai movie, they had a better presentation of geisha dancing.

This stuff happens alot. I took part in the Korean club scene in Collateral where they were trying to find Korean extras. When me and my friends arrived guess what the majority of people show up? Chinese, Flips, vietnamese, and other southeast asians. Of course they didnt care because they knew many koreans wouldnt work for minimum wage.
 
Originally posted by: magomago
I guess it is...there are some little fibs and streching the truths in certain areas, but I would say its the fairest movie produced thus far by Hollywood in the past twenty years~

And again for emphasis, if any of you plan to be directors of movies and will include Arabs...please use Arabs, not Mexicans 😉
Click to expand...

From what I understand, Arabs are hard to come by because so few arab actors can actually speak english.
 
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