Unfortunatley for itself, and many other epics out there, Kingdom of Heaven suffers from Post-LotR Syndrome. Thankfully, most of the imagery is quite good and the story is very compelling and thoughtful. Orlando Bloom plays the lead quite well, though his big dramatic speech isn't nearly as intense as say, Viggo's, Crowe's or Gibson's... but he still has a long way to go before attaining the skill of any of those actors. That being said, Kingdom of Heaven is an excellent movie, almost matching with Scott's most recent epic, Gladiator. But not quite.
The kingdom of Heaven is of course Jerusalem, and this movie takes place during the Crusades. Christians from all over Europe rallied to take back, or maintain control of the holy land while the Muslims did the same from their deserts. After receiving a visit from his long lost father, the blacksmith Balian (Bloom), becomes a knight and heads off to the holy land, hoping to find some answers as to why his wife is dead. It's a very quiet, sort of desperate role, and Bloom plays it quite well. He manages to find a sort of intensity that his past characters lacked, but there are still times that he appears unconvinced of his character. Jeremy Irons is excellent as an advisor to the king, who stands against the Christian radicals.
The King of Jerusalem is one of the most interesting characters in the movie. Edward Norton lends his talent to the cast as the King, who happens to be afflicted with lepresy and his clothed from head to toe, including an elegant, yet gharish, iron mask. The King seems to be right in the middle of the conflict in more ways than one. He knows that the Christian radicals are just that, but he feels compelled to let them have there way, maybe for the sake of his own people. Liam Neeson is excellent as always, portraying Balian's father in a sadly limited role.
This movie is just bound to offend someone, whether you're Christian, Muslim, or just very patriotic. In the movie, the Christians march to war bearing massive crosses, much the way America has done the same to the Middle-East. The Christian radicals are a rowdy arrogant bunch, the Muslims are a bloodthirsty tribe, but honorable. It's almost a little to sad to see such violence over something so seeminly trivial as religion. In order to preserve Jerusalem, Balian orders that the dead bodies are thrown into a pit and burned to prevent disease. The priests call him a heathen, but he wisely says, "If he does not understand, then he is not God." Simple words, but meaningful.
The action is somewhat dissapointing. It's much the same as you saw in the last few battles of LotR: vast armies taking up the horizon, siege towers and flaming chunks of rock being flung from catapults. I enjoyed the dialogue much, much more than I did the action scenes. The characters are all very fleshed out, even the ones cast as the "villains". The only real villains in this film are ideals. And this is what places this movie above most epics.