Fans of Orlando Bloom (aka Legolas) will undoubtably have loved this film in the same way they loved 'Troy'. However, coparing this to greats like 'Gladiator' or 'Lord of the Rings' hardly do those films justice.

There are those films that leave you on the edge of your seat, or laughing even at the absurdity of the plot but this was not one of them. Although I cannot find any fault with the acting I was confused as to where the story was going throughout the first two thirds of the film.

Bloom's character has just lost his wife and daughter. His daughter to suicide and therefore according to catholic teaching, she will be in hell. The less than sympathetic local priest likes to remind him of this but soon gets the point. He meets his father, a knight on his way to Jerusalem (aka Kingdom of Heaven?) who convinces him to come with him to get forgiveness for his sins.

Then, all too quickly, he gets there and tries for forgiveness ... goes to war with his handful of knights and peasants and turns down an offer to marry the queen, given by the king.

In my own opinion, this film involves far too much build up yet little build up of the characters themselves or the situations they are in. Battles are needlessly gory, i'm sure only for shock value, and far too late in the film. Quite frankly, there were times in the film that I was bored and lost at the same time.

But when the battle for Jerusalem did finally arrive (which was rather reminicent of battle for Helms Deep in 'The Two Towers') it finally got my attention.

In conclusion then, if you liked Troy you'll enjoy this one. If your a fan of Bloom then you'll sit there druling. But if you like Lord of the Rings, skip to the battle towards the end.

User rating: 4.7 (3 votes) [rate this movie] [official site]
photo © 20th Century Fox.