AFTER countless supporting roles in Black Hawk Down, Troy and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Orlando Bloom finally graduates to leading man status in a major Hollywood blockbuster.
It's his name in bold type above the film's title and his beatific image on the poster. Make no mistake: Kingdom Of Heaven is Bloom's for the taking.
Alas and alack, while the young actor certainly looks good in widescreen, he doesn't possess the acting range to carry this sprawling epic.
Director Ridley Scott is certainly up to the gargantuan task, having romped through similar territory in the Oscar-winning Gladiator.
Unfortunately, the screenplay - by first-timer William Monahan - makes heavy work of a brutal history lesson set against the turbulent backdrop of the Crusades.
French blacksmith Balian (Bloom) mourns the loss of his wife and young son, tormented by the religious conviction that his wife's suicide will condemn her to hell.
Consumed by grief, Balian meets Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), an esteemed baron to ailing King Baldwin of Jerusalem (Edward Norton), who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of lasting peace in the Holy Land.
Godfrey shocks Balian by claiming him as his illegitimate son. The nobleman entreats the blacksmith to accompany him on a sacred mission.
En route to Jerusalem, Godfrey is mortally wounded and Balian inherits his father's title and land in the city where Christians, Muslims and Jews achieve an uneasy, peaceful co-existence.
Bound to serve his king, Balian watches in horror as ambitious French Lord, Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas), rises to power and goads the great Muslim warrior Saladin (Ghassan Massoud) into war.
While the citizens of Jerusalem prepare for conflict, Balian strives for peace, aided by the king's second-in-command Tiberias (Jeremy Irons) and sultry Princess Sibylla (Eva Green).
Kingdom Of Heaven lives up to its billing as a sword and sandals epic.
Sumptuous sets and costumes fill every frame and the battle sequences are brilliantly orchestrated and photographed.
However, we've seen this all before in Troy and Alexander, and more obviously The Lord Of The Rings.
The colour-bleached cinematography and the final stand-off at the walled city of Jerusalem also beg unfavourable comparisons with Minis Tirith and Middle Earth.
As a supposedly heroic knight, Bloom alternates between two expressions: impassive and squinting.
When he combines the two in rapid succession, we can only guess at the emotional turmoil raging with Balian.
And his rallying cry to the entrenched citizens is delivered with so little conviction, you half expect someone to scream "Speak up lad!" from the ramparts.
Green is underused, Csokas is almost comical for his bullying, sneering and rabble-rousing, and Irons growls like a man struck with terrible indigestion.
By the end of the slow-going 144 minutes, we share his discomfort.
See it at: UCI, Odeon
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