Well, I saw Kingdom of Heaven yesterday.

And I'm torn.

It's clearly not as good as Black Hawk Down or Gladiator. It's not even close. Much of the dialogue and characterization is garbage. The visuals were beautiful.

Editing was too frenetic; I actually (for the first time ever) lost track of a battle scene.

The romance was forced (surprise, surprise), and the acting much too over-the-top, although Brendan Gleeson was delightful as the gleefully villainous and nihilistic Reynaud de Chatillon.

Eva Green was pretty, and her performance inspired. Bloom did okay, but his performance was hampered by the speech before the last fight at the Christopher Gate. Too much bad speechifying kills epics; Scott knows this, since of all of his movies this is the only one to fall victim to bad speechifying.

Far too many characters were thrown away. Jeremy Irons's Tiberias was wasted. The Patriarch of Jerusalem was lame; Guy de Lusignan was flat. Most everyone lacked critical depth, with the following exceptions: Baudouin, Godfrey, Balian, and Sibella. Saladin was well presented; I would have liked to have seen a demonstration of his strategic and tactical brilliance, since the siege is portrayed as a rather rote battle. Hattin would've been nice to see.

Overall, I'd rate it three out of five stars.