dgibson
05-16-2005, 01:19 PM
Balian, the bastard son of the Duke of Ibelin, travels to Jerusalem during one of the Crusades to amend for his and his dead wife's sins. Along the way he waxes heroic and eventually becomes the defender of Jerusalem. I thought the movie was relatively fair, if a little sparse, in its treatment of the Crusades, the motivations for both sides, etc., etc. Pretty boy-toy Orlando Bloom doesn't do too bad as the reluctant hero, and Liam Neeson does well as his father. The battle scenes were similar to Gladiator in that it was all shaky-camera zip-zoom make-you-puke-from-all-the-motion cinematography, which I think is a little overdone. ;) Probably not too historically accurate, but all in all it was a pretty decent flick. I think I'll go...3 and a half spikes.