Just saw the movie a few hours ago.
Must say I was pleasantly surprised, even though my expectations weren't as low as some other's. In my opinion it's maybe the best historical epic of late, I would say even better than Gladiator, but that has more to do with my fascination with the Crusades than anything else.
France in winter with snowy leaves floating in the air, arid and dusty Palestine, the city of Jerusalem with its great conglomeration of peoples and tongues fluttering about, the battles, the religious fervour and grim fatalism of the characters, and the tragic king Baldwin IV, these things I loved.
Yet there were, as always, some things I felt were a bit off, but which can be easily modified in the extended version.
Main problem; the whole movie is simply too short. The journey by boat from Messina to the Holy Land, which is quite an undertaking in itself, is summed up far too briefly. When Balian washes up on the shores of Syria after the shipwreck you haven't got the slightest impression at all of the great voyage he's been through. I would also like it if the extended version spends longer time in France, exploring the background and motivations of Balian more thoroughly.
The presentation of Guy de Lusignan and Reynald de Chatillon as generic villains and little else should definitely be modified with some additional scenes giving explanation to their motivations and reasoning, though knowing Hollywood I strongly doubt it will be done. I couldn't help but laugh at how Reynald apparently knows that what he's doing is wrong, but he still keeps going, by the logic that "somebody has to be like this." Good one, let's be evil because, well,
somebody must be, right? The presentation of the Templars should also be balanced out a little, they were the backbone of the Kingdom and not mere lackeys of Lusignan.
Lastly, I hope to see a little more of what happened on the Saracen side of things. My criticism of the movie and at the same time wishes for the extended version, you might say.
Bookmarks