I watched Kingdom of Heaven the first time it came out, but almost forgot about it until a friend of mine wanted to watch it again and invited me to join him. This time I watched the Director's Cut, which is both longer and divided into two halves unlike the original (as far as I remember). The story starts off easy and follows Balian de Ibelin, a blacksmith on his way to the holy land to take over his fathers land. But as soon as our main hero arrives in Jerusalem the story becomes much harder to follow. This is one of my main concerns with the movie. In the end of the movie I was very unsure exactly who was on Balian de Ibelin side and who was working for Saladin. In fact most of the story is very hard to follow and confusing. Maybe it would have helped if I knew the history of the 12th century crusades, but this should not be a prerequisite for understanding a movie in my opinion.
It could be the directing that's confusing and that the editing is making the story hard to follow, but no matter what the reason is the movie is a huge mess. That being said, the battle scenes are well done and the last siege on Jerusalem is wonderfully portrayed. I got the feeling that at least some research had been done as to what weapons were available in the 12th century and what ways wars were fought. In my opinion all the actors do a great job and suit their roles except Orando Bloom as Balian de Ibelin. Why Ridley Scott choose him I am not sure because he does not fit into his role at all. I have a feeling an actor like Viggo Mortensen could have done a way better job. Normally I am a fan of Ridley Scott movies, but Kingdom of Heaven was a big disappointment. Don't get me wrong, its not horrible and I know this review has a more negative than positive tone, but I think overall the movie only deserves a 6/10