The Kingdom

So... I had a free movie pass and I recently went to go see The Kingdom with it. I didn't necessarially want to see it bad but I figured I would give it a chance. I can honestly say it was better than I thought it would be BUT that isn't saying too much because I wasn't expecting much going in. Anyways, I will say that as soon as the movie started it bothered me. I mean, they have some odd way of telling the story of "The Kingdom" in Saudi Arabia where the words turn into objects which have some significance. One of the aforementioned objects were the World Trade Centers which they showed planes crashing into... OK. Why? It bothers me that certain filmmakers feel they can take the image and use it to fuel hatred for a certain type of people in a movie. Eh... Might just be me but it rubbed me the wrong way initially.

As for the movie itself, certain events happened WAY too fast. It was like... OK we are in the US and nobody will let us go to Saudi Arabia. Then one conversation later BAM they are in Saudi Arabia. Certain things like that seemed to leave giant holes in the plot. Another thing I couldn't quite grasp is what type of a movie was the director shooting for? Some times I thought it would be a political commentary, other times drama, and later in the movie it seemed like an action movie. It seemed to jump around too much and and throw too many genres at me.

I will say that some of the acting was good. However, it was mostly the actors who played Saudi Arabians. I am not a fan of Jennifer Garner and this movie didn't help any. She seemed like the weakest at acting throughout the whole movie. Another aspect I enjoyed is that they portrayed the Lead Saudi soldier as a hero and presented both sides of the Arab people (those terrorist ideas which are force fed to us and the idea that some of them just want the fighting to end and will do anything to protect their children). It was definitely an interesting movie that kept my interest and led to a nice climax but had an end that fizzled to nothingness extremely rapidly.

Especially seeing as it will soon be out of theaters, I would suggest renting it and giving it a shot that way. If you don't like the beginning, fast forward to the end climax scenes, they will keep you interested at least. Not a horrible movie but by no means great either.

Overall: 3/5