[Leiali]

Is it just me or does this look pretty spectacular? Orlando Bloom aside, with direction by Ridley Scott and a stellar cast including Liam Neeson (one of my favourites), and a plot fit for any of us sff world regulars, is anyone else excited too? I forget the name of the actor playing Saladin but he looks like he will be excellent. Hopefully it won't be a film about muslims vs christians, but a film about the Crusades, the medieval world, fanaticism and war. The battle scenes look great.

[juzzza]

Yep, I'm looking forward to this one, if it's half as good as ARTHUR, I will really enjoy it ( :p )

[Leiali]

yes well lets hope it is better than Arthur which as you know has been voted one of the worst films of last year by the discerning members of this forum.
:p

[Evil Agent]

I beg to differ! Yes people were quick to jump on the 'I hate Arthur' bandwagon.. but in my opinion no one did a good job of explaining why! I think me and juzzza did a better job of defending it!

As for Kingdom of Heaven...Of course it's going to be about Christians vs. Muslims...that's what the crusades were! A horrible, bloody Holy War, started by the Church! If that's not in the movie, it's not going to be a good film. But anyway, I think this movie is gonna ROCK.. I don't think it will flop, like Alexander or Troy, mainly due to Ridley Scott... everyone loves Gladiator!

Liam Neeson rules, he's also going to be in Batman Begins this June!!!

[JamesL]

There is already trouble on the horizon for this movie. The script was allegedly looked over by a leading Muslim academic and has been subsequently denounced as being anti-muslim. Apparently Saladin is the only muslim who emerges with any credit; the rest of them are portrayed as a bunch of bloodthirsty, ignorant oafs. :(

Hopefully this won't become to much of an issue. The film does look good but I'm skeptical about Orlando Bloom's inclusion...it'll be interesting to see if he can actually play a different character other than the dashing, swashbuckling role he usually performs. Have to say he's a little too wooden for me.

As for Arthur, I liked that film. I think Arthur (the character) was miscast and was not quite what anyone hoped for, but I enjoyed the film quite a lot. Would have been nice to see more of Merlin though. The Wodes rocked.

[kongming]

strange... and I know people are gonna wail on me. But I thought Arthur was good and that Gladiator was bad.

Gladiator had a bad ending.

maybe I was expecting more from gladiator, and less from arthur.

I beg to differ! Yes people were quick to jump on the 'I hate Arthur' bandwagon.. but in my opinion no one did a good job of explaining why! I think me and juzzza did a better job of defending it!

As for Kingdom of Heaven...Scott... everyone loves Gladiator!!!!

[saintjon]

Man I"m sold on Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons and Ridley Scott, cheers.

[Leiali]

I beg to differ! Yes people were quick to jump on the 'I hate Arthur' bandwagon.. but in my opinion no one did a good job of explaining why! I think me and juzzza did a better job of defending it!

As for Kingdom of Heaven...Of course it's going to be about Christians vs. Muslims...that's what the crusades were! A horrible, bloody Holy War, started by the Church! If that's not in the movie, it's not going to be a good film. But anyway, I think this movie is gonna ROCK.. I don't think it will flop, like Alexander or Troy, mainly due to Ridley Scott... everyone loves Gladiator!

Liam Neeson rules, he's also going to be in Batman Begins this June!!!


I think that the plot for Arthur was terrible. How could he be remembered in history as a great leader if he only engendered courage and faith in a handful of warriors? If he existed and even if not, his character would have been much more influential rather than legendary in that time amongst all the british people. The rousing monologues were not awe inspiring and the general mood of the film was just not grand enough - despite some excellent actors.

I didn't mean not include the crusades :D I meant that with the political climate as it is, I hope that a stark line is not drawn between muslims and christians in this film - as money is usually the key reason for any territorial disagreements anyway, I want the film to explore the issues of the medieval world rather than have a black and white portrayal of the crusades. Sorry for the lack of clarification there!

And I am glad we agree on Liam Neeson - but probably for different reasons ;)

[Evil Agent]

Well..those are pretty good points! :p

I don't think it's a great adaptation of the Arthur story, but I just enjoy it as a visually good battle movie from the Dark Ages! I love the Saxons... I admit, I probably enjoyed the movie for 'guy' reasons, but I'll stick by it. I also kind of like Owen as Arthur for some reason.

As for Kingdom of Heaven, I really hope that it's not as black & white as has JamesL said. That would unfortunate. But I still think the preview looked pretty good, and from the brief scenes it also looked like Orlando Bloom was acting a little better than usual. So I'll have to just wait and see, but I'm optimistic.

[Shehzad]

The problm with Kingdom of Heaven is that this hardly the best timing for a movie about the Crusades. I'm sure that they can come up with a balanced, well-written script (from Hollywppd-- did I just say that?) but it will nevertheless draw criticism all around.