A new film by Ridley Scott

Someone at my work caught a pre-screening. She said it was really good, and I trust her taste in movies. So I'm amped.
 
Ook, just got back from watching it...

I loved it, like I said I would :) But it wasn't perfect and unfortunately it didn't live up to the awesomeness of Gladiator, let alone better it. Beatiful cinematography, some very good acting (except for Bloom, but he wasn't half bad and, dare I say, fit the role), amazing action/battle scenes (uhhh high shutter speed madness :cheesy: ) - it was all there, of course. However, something wasn't right and even my friend, who I went with, a fan of the last 3 Scott movies, didn't like it...
I felt the movie suffered from it's length. Had it been some 30 min longer (yes, longer), it would actually work better, story-wise. Sometimes it looked like a bunch of random scenes quickly put together - that's how fast events were flying by, especially during the first hour. It also was quite confusing early on, because we were given no background whatsoever on the political situation in Jerusalem - my friend kept asking me "Why do they wanna fight?", "Why did they attack the caravan?"... Well, pretty much for the same reasons Bush started the Iraq **** - because he wanted to and because he could.
Then there is Bloom's character, Balian. We never really get to know him and understand how at some point he turns into this tough guy, able to lead an army and plan defense of a large city against 200.000 soldiers. There were many little aspects like that and in the end I'm afraid it took away a bit of soul from the movie. I'm guessing all the missing stuff will be on Director's Cut DVD, I hope so.
One last thing I didn't like... music. I don't know why Scott changed Zimmer for some Harry Gregson-Williams, but I wish he didn't. Because what we got in the end was a completely forgettable score. The guy tried to do Gladiator/Black Hawk Down thing, but I do not remember a single tune, except for... Attention!.. A TOTAL RIP-OFF of 13th Warrior main theme played during the "Rise a Knight" scene. I noticed, because I happen to like McTiernan's movie very much.

But, anyway, go see it. Ridley raises the bar for the historical epics once again :thumbsup:
 
x170e3, thanks for the first review. Music is so important in Epic movie, Zimmer no doubt will have been great.
 
yeah I just got back from seeing this....

Overall I liked it, but that might be biased seeing how Ridley is my favorite director. I agree with Xl70e3 in that the events just flew past without much build up. Some things felt random until I started to understand who the characters were more. I felt Orlando Bloom did pretty good. Again it was kinda weird how he could barely hold a sword at first and then two minutes later he was a killing machine. The one person I was most disappointed with was Eva Green. I don't know why but I just wasn't feeling her character at all. Anyways, I think its worth to see if you have nothing to do (as my situtation was). I'm looking forward to the DVD, I hope it has some sweet stuff.
 
Hopefully I'm going to see this soon. It looks interesting and I've heard alot of good thigns about it from people I know.

Of course they all could be crazy.
 
Visually spectacular... other than that... nothing to make me take notice of this film or give it much thought after the fact.

(following comments may discuss spoilers so BEWARE)



I think for me it suffers from me wanting it to live up to Gladiator. Problem is they are 2 completely different movies. This one lacked any characters I cared about(other than Neeson). It also lacked a real definitive bad guy, someone I just wanted to lose so badly! I actually couldn't decide which side I was cheering for, both had morals and character and dare I say good causes.

I read a Maddox article once where he talked about how Braveheart was one of the worst movies ever made. I totally disagreed with this, but his main point was how in every big fight scene they constantly do shaki-cam and we really don't get to see anything that's going on. Every epic battle scene since has employed this method for the most part and Heaven is no exception.

I really found the fight sequence at the watering hole where Bloom is attacked by the soldiers 3 on 1 just stupid. I mean I loved the action, but it felt like they just decided "we need to liven up the movie... oh I know, lets have Bloom hanging out all by himself in an abandoned watering hole for no apparent reason".

The first fight sequence in the forest was the most entertaining. I didn't like the fact Kevin McKidd is just in the first act. Did he die in the boat tip?

I guess my biggest disspleasure was that I didn't get that movie feeling. I didn't get attached to the story and the people involved in it, and felt let down after investing almost 3hours into it. Add the fact Eva Green don't get naked... let down!(guess I'll go rent The Dreamers).
 
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