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''We are about to find out! ''
A team of U.S. government agents is sent to investigate the bombing of an American facility in the Middle East.
Jamie Foxx: Ronald Fleury
Despite the fact of being nearly two hours in duration, The Kingdom speeds ahead with its tale, not halting for in depth character development or concentrating on the main situations ensuing. This is it's coin like duality quality of being stuck between it's purpose. On one hand, Kingdom keeps an excellent pace.
Begins quite suddenly with a informative history lesson, telling us what the middle east Kingdom is, which I liked I admit, then with a cataclysmic explosion, the unprovoked, unexpected attack on the American residential compound results in being brutal and relentless, not scared of showing images of US children and civilians being fired upon.
Audiences expecting a thoughtful and thorough look at international relations are likely to be pleased in some ways and displeased in others. Kingdom avoids its own questions raised and resorts either to the American investigation team being frustrated over the lack of cooperation they are receiving or switches back to brutal and bloody gunfights that are shot and edited with the speed and accuracy of a quality action flick. This is a movie where the heroes can stumble upon the right clues that lead them to the right answers within a day or two.
The last half hour of the film is an extended action sequence as the Fleury and his team find themselves trying to rescue an ally, and blowing away anything that gets in their sights. The movie's final scene tries to make up for this with a sequence that is supposed to be chilling and make us wonder if the heroes are any different from the villains, but it comes across as being too much in places and somewhat force fed to Audiences.
But there is no doubt some repetitive action sequence of non-stop shooting in the wake of Black Hawk Down does make it seem a little hazy with it's agendas, especially when you have masked up goons taking potshots from every conceivable street corner, that it becomes somewhat like a video game. Those who find no peace with the ''unsteadicam", will naturally hate the way the movie is created, with the constantly shaking camera that, coupled with the rapid fire pace of editing, will induce some nauseating feeling to those with low tolerance to bouncing cameras. But I thought that the narrative justified the use of this technique though, with the characters constantly peering over their shoulders, being in hostile territory, a now frequently adopted technique for filming realisitc action, whether you like it or not.
Jamie Foxx has carved a name with military or action roles before in movies like Stealth, Jarhead or Miami Vice, and in Kingdom, he revisits Saudi Arabia as FBI special agent Ronald Fluery, who has assembled his own renegade team of agents to investigate into the suicide bombing and killings of American citizens living within a safe protected zone. We have Chris Cooper's bomb expert Grant Sykes who's stuck deep in mud, Jason Bateman as IT specialist Adam Leavitt, and the token female around to present challenges to customs and tradition, Jennifer Garner's forensic specialist Janet Mayes. Naturally in the hunt for those responsible for the attacks, they go up against protocol and culture, in the form of their host Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom). But the movie does cast some sympathetic light on Faris, and in a broad stroke, the Saudi Arabians as well, being caught in a situation that they would rather be kept out of.
The Kingdom is a mixed bag. It seems to want to be an important movie that has messages, but at its core, it's a revenge motivated story where guns never stop firing, and heroes can fly in and save the day in the blink of an eye. I loved Kingdom in certain parts for what it was. The violence is brutal without being over done or glorified, and Kingdom at least never talks down to us, probably because it doesn't have time to be given the chance. This is not a bad movie, just not quite the movie I was hoping for considering the theme of the film and the cast involved. The Kingdom is a mostly safe, sanitized package designed to appeal audiences and fans of the action genre. Certainly concludes in making us realize both sides on the conflict, end up wanting the same thing because of all the death and crimson filled hate induced fighting.
All I want and in my opinion after seeing Kingdom, that we need a world free of hate and that we should learn to accept each other and be at peace.
7/10
