A group of us went to see this film on Saturday. The actually scenes were very good and the cinematography was also excellent. However, I left the film with a very strong impression that the cursades were nothing like they were depicted in the film and more worringly. . . I was bored, though not quite bored enough to stop watching it as I had the impression it was just about to get better. It disapointed me.
The film felt like the story line was flimsey and weak. The acting from Orlando Bloom was average and none of the supporting actors shone. All in all I was rather disapointed.
All in all I would rate this film
Mildly entertaining. The directing and cinematography save it from a 2 star rating. Just.
It's like another Troy...the cinematography and some decent battle scenes save it from being as bad as it could've been. I can't be bothered with emoticons or finding those stars, so: *****
I don't think any of the other actors really got enough screen time to even try to shine, although the leper king gets my vote for pulling off some decent acting without the aid of facial expressions.
Whilst I also suspect it didn't depict the crusades accurately, at least it didn't try to glorify them, portraying them as the brutal, far-from-God mess that they were.
As a historical sidenote, Saladin was not glorified by the Muslims, he was perceived as somewhat weak for agreeing those truces. I believe the ferocious Al Babr (horrible phonetic misspelling) is the true folk hero.
