Kingdom of Heaven

The first of the summer blockbusters, Kingdom of Heaven sees Ridley Scott returning to the epic-style territory which helped re-ignite his career with Gladiator. He's got the Romans out of his system, as Kingdom of Heaven is more concerned with the Crusades and in particular, the siege of Jerusalem, a defining episode in the centuries-long struggle for religious and cultural dominance. Opening in France, the film charts the fortunes of Balian (Orlando Bloom) a young blacksmith mourning the death of his wife and child. The illegitimate son of the knight Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), Balian is taken aback when his father shows up and tempts him to Jerusalem, then the centre of the known world. After a treacherous journey, Balian is introduced to a world where honour and nobility are not often associated with those in power. Oh, and there's the small matter of a battle-hardened Muslim army, led by Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), which is determined to regain the city of Jerusalem after they were unceremoniously evicted by the rather uncharitable Christians.

Scott's always been more stylist than storyteller and like Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven features some heavy-handed and uneven plotting, where characters fall over each other in narrative conveniences which wouldn't look out of place in a soap opera. As infuriating as his tendency is to over-simplify, Scott has few peers when it comes to exploiting the most visceral aspects of the cinematic medium, utilising every inch of the screen in a series of quite extraordinary set pieces, culminating in a jaw-dropping showdown at the gates of the biblical city. Teenage girls may disagree but Bloom's not charismatic or forceful enough to carry a movie of this size, even if the support from the likes of Neeson, Gleeson, Irons and an unrecognisable Ed Norton helps minimise his discomfort. It's far from perfect but Kingdom of Heaven at least gets the summer season off to a rousing start.