2K Replay: KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

 by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role, Drama” (Edward Norton) at the Satellite Awards. He lost to Danny Huston in The Constant Gardener.

• Best Scene/Moment: The Siege of Jerusalem sequence is a great, long, and sustained action sequence.

• Best Song: “Wall Breached” by Harry Gregson-Williams.

• Best Merch: A “Rare Kingdom of Heaven Movie Promo Book w/Slipcase 2005 Blank Pages Leather Bnd” for $99.99. As a big fan of leather notebooks, this thing is sexy. I would totally buy it if it didn’t cost $100.

• Director Grade: Kingdom of Heaven was directed by Ridley Scott.
Great Movies: Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Matchstick Men, The Last Duel
Good Movies: Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut), A Good Year, The Counselor, The Martian, House of Gucci
OK Movies: Legend, Black Rain, Hannibal, Kingdom of Heaven (Theatrical Cut), American Gangster, Body of Lies, Robin Hood, Alien: Covenant, Napoleon
Bad Movies: Prometheus, Gladiator II
Unseen By Me: The Duelists, Someone to Watch Over Me, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, G.I. Jane, Exodus: Gods and Kings, All the Money in the World
Overall Grade: A-

• Double It with This 2005 Movie: Elizabethtown

• Year 2005 Movies to Trailer Before Them: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Domino, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

• Never Talk to Strangers or Kingdom of Heaven? Kingdom of Heaven

• Mall Movie? No. This is a prestige-ish sword & sandals movie that would’ve played at the fancy theater in town.

• Only in 2005: The great Orlando Bloom movie star test.

• Scene Stealer (tie): Liam Neeson and Edward Norton.

• I Miss: When Summer Movie Seasons were kicked off by something like Kingdom of Heaven instead of mostly superhero titles.

• I Don’t Miss: The wave of epic historical action dramas that followed Gladiator.

• 2005 Crush: Eva Green.

• 2025 Crush: Eva Green.

• What I Thought in 2005: I saw Kingdom of Heaven in theaters (the theatrical cut) and thought it was pretty meh and suffered in comparison to Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s influential historical action movie from five years earlier. I wasn’t very involved in the story and remember thinking Orlando Bloom didn’t have the chops to pull off the lead in a big epic like this.

• What I Think in 2025: After hearing about how good the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven was for years, I finally got around to it for this viewing and people are right! It is much better. The character development is satisfying and makes much more sense, the pacing is better, and Orlando Bloom’s performance didn’t bother me as much (I think he’s good in the beginning as a sort of reluctant hero but he’s not a big enough persona to be this leader of men by the end). Overall, the movie is still a little too slow but it’s also intermittently excellent, which it wasn’t in the theatrical cut I saw twenty years ago.