I finished watching the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven on Blu-ray last night. My opinion basically echoes most reviews on the net – Orlando Bloom just isn’t up to the task but he’s not screamingly awful, and Ridley Scott surrounded him with extremely talented actors who made his shortcomings more obvious. I mean… David Thewlis, Edward Norton, Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons. That’s a damn high bar to reach.
Visually and aurally, the disc is terrific – an early battle scene was incredibly visceral, with arrows flying through the frame (and the soundfield) with extraordinary power. The story is dense enough that I think I’m going to need to rewatch it to catch everything, and the costuming and set design was extremely similar to Assassin’s Creed, so I guess AC must be historically accurate.
I did a bit of Wikipedia-digging to find out more about the Crusades and leprosy, so I guess the film inspired me to learn something, which can’t be a bad thing.
Edward Norton was in that?!
(was that in the extra hour?)
well, don’t forget Tommy Boy!
have you seen Rome?!
if not, i’ll have to hook you up
Ed Norton was the king…
I’ve seen one episode of Rome, but Crumpet didn’t like it, so I haven’t watched any more…