Director Ridley Scott, best known for the overrated “”Gladiator”” returns to the sword and sandals genre in the wannabe epic, “”Kingdom of Heaven.”” In Heaven, Orlando Bloom is Balian a young blacksmith who is one day approached, out of the blue, by his long lost father Godfrey (Liam Neeson), a wealthy nobleman who is on a quest to protect Jerusalem from the Muslims.
Balian refuses to join his father on his quest. After accidentally killing a priest he changes his mind and goes with his father in hopes of absolving his sins. Eventually he goes from being a black-smith to becoming a knight and after his father dies (early in the film) becomes his official heir. Next thing we know he forms an bond with the Leper King Baldwin (Edward Norton) who hides his disfigured face behind a mask, and beds the King’s sister Sibylla (Eva Green) who happens to be married to a war mongering nobleman. The first hour and a half of this 2 – 2/1/2 hour film drags and plods along. Orlando Bloom doesn’t have that “”IT”” factor to carry a film like this. Yes he’s pretty to look at, but he comes across as a vapid California surfer boy trying to be a serious “”artist.”” It doesn’t help that his character is such an uncaring, self-involved “”Tool”” that you wouldn’t want to spend five minutes with, that alone 2