Going into 'The Kingdom,' I was really expecting to like it. Billed as a political action thriller (about current events no less), it sounded both deep and enthralling. Not to mention that it received mostly positive reviews; the only criticism seemed to be from people who thought it was overtly pro-American Neo-Imperialist arrogance or overtly pro-Arab Terrorist Liberal Bleed-Hearts.
The movie started out strongly enough. Opening with an attack on an American company installation by terrorist in the titular 'Kingdom' of Saudi Arabia, the film sets itself up rapidly. Using that attack as 'bait,' of you will, to lure American first response teams like paramedics and federal agents in for the investigation, the terrorist precede to blow up an ambulance and kill an FBI agent whose friends with Jamie Foxx. Naturally, that can't stand, so Jamie Foxx and co. want to go to Saudi Arabia and bring the ones responsible to justice.
Aside from the 'shaky-cam,' the first portion of the movie was quite good. From there, the movie doesn't fail outright from there so much as is fails little by little.
The 'shaky-cam' that persists throughout the movie is really quite annoying and frankly stupid. Once upon a time, there were these men called directors, and they could be creative and innovative with the camera AND tell a great story at the same time. Ingmar Bergman, with his use of light and shadows to create mood. Alfred Hitchcock, with his seemingly endless visual motifs and consistent knack for just the right angle. And my personal favorite, Akira Kurosawa, who managed to frame and construct every shot perfectly, yet make it feel natural and effortless at the same time. Kurosawa would storyboard his movies with full sized paintings, for Christ sake. And then there's the modern 'shaky-cam' group of directors like Michael Bay and this film's director, Peter Berg. Their directorial approach essentially burns down to point a camera at something, shake it a bunch, and hope it looks cool. It has no craft or substance at all; it's just stupid. It doesn't create a sense of intimacy with the characters, it's annoying. It doesn't serve to 'bring you there,' it's nauseating. Honestly, does anyone, anywhere, actually like this 'shaky-cam' stuff? Not that I've seen. So Hollywood, please, stop doing it.
Anyway, the shaky-cam would have been forgivable if it were used just during the action scenes, but it persists even during scenes of dialog. Editing a scene of four people talking in an empty gymnasium like it's a cracked-out music video is just moronic and distracting.
Besides the shaky-cam, there was quite a number of things this movie did poorly, shouldn't have done, or didn't do enough of.
The political aspect of the film is underdeveloped and dumbed down. Government Agents boil down the complex social, political, and economic situations in Saudi Arabia to "if they loose control of the government, they loose control of the oil, and that can't happen." How insightful! 'The Kingdom' could have probably been set anywhere, for how much the political aspect of the film played into it.
The drama of the film basically comes from the Saudi hosts yelling at the FBI Agents not to do things. The Agents wish to investigate a building outside of the attacked compound, the Saudis yell and say 'no.' Not because of the oceans of cultural difference that separate the two groups, oh no, really just for no reason at all.
Seemingly every scene ended with a "Saudi Arabia and America are different" joke. "That's the sh*t" "Sh*t? You must use bathroom?" "No, silly-head!" *cut to next scene* The first few were actually funny. After about five, it got annoying.
The investigation scenes are somewhat pointless, and really don't lead to much of anything. Chris Cooper oversees the excavation of a hole, Jennifer Garner does forensics, etc. They really don't deduce anything overly important, or do anything at all, really. They don't seem to share their findings much, either. It seemed like they were just there to fill up space, in all honesty.
Finnally, they bust some small terrorist cell, find a bunch of guns, are told it's a great success, and are told to leave. On the car ride out, they're attacked by the terrorists in full force. There's a car wreck or two, and the terrorists kidnap Jason Bateman's character. That makes sense, because he's not the main character (Foxx), the grizzled veteran (Cooper) or the hot girl (Garner). Why they don't just kill the Agents while they're defenseless in upturned cars is beyond me. Anyway, Foxx and co. precede to get their friend back in one of the most random, unwarranted, and pointless actions scenes ever. Get ready for some shaky-cam! Foxx kills about a dozen terrorists without much effort, shoots about 200 shots from a 20 round clip without once reloading, saves himself from a grenade by tossing it four feet to the right, and eventually saves his friend with co. miraculously intact. Oh, they also find Abu Hamza, the terrorist mastermind they were looking for. How convenient! What luck! WOW! This final act, which was supposed to be thrilling and suspenseful, was anything but.
The movie ends with them returning home, and they there's an overly sappy 'we're back, thank God' scene, which ends with Foxx and and Arab girl saying "kill 'em all." The mega-poignant last scene ends with an out-of-focus close-up of the girl's FOREHEAD, for f*ck's sake. How brilliant!
All in all, in terms of action and thrillers, there are much better movies. In terms of politics, there are few that do it worse than "The Kingdom." It may just be that this movie rubbed me the wrong way, but nonetheless, "The Kingdom," if not terrible as I make it out to be, certainly isn't great.
The movie started out strongly enough. Opening with an attack on an American company installation by terrorist in the titular 'Kingdom' of Saudi Arabia, the film sets itself up rapidly. Using that attack as 'bait,' of you will, to lure American first response teams like paramedics and federal agents in for the investigation, the terrorist precede to blow up an ambulance and kill an FBI agent whose friends with Jamie Foxx. Naturally, that can't stand, so Jamie Foxx and co. want to go to Saudi Arabia and bring the ones responsible to justice.
Aside from the 'shaky-cam,' the first portion of the movie was quite good. From there, the movie doesn't fail outright from there so much as is fails little by little.
The 'shaky-cam' that persists throughout the movie is really quite annoying and frankly stupid. Once upon a time, there were these men called directors, and they could be creative and innovative with the camera AND tell a great story at the same time. Ingmar Bergman, with his use of light and shadows to create mood. Alfred Hitchcock, with his seemingly endless visual motifs and consistent knack for just the right angle. And my personal favorite, Akira Kurosawa, who managed to frame and construct every shot perfectly, yet make it feel natural and effortless at the same time. Kurosawa would storyboard his movies with full sized paintings, for Christ sake. And then there's the modern 'shaky-cam' group of directors like Michael Bay and this film's director, Peter Berg. Their directorial approach essentially burns down to point a camera at something, shake it a bunch, and hope it looks cool. It has no craft or substance at all; it's just stupid. It doesn't create a sense of intimacy with the characters, it's annoying. It doesn't serve to 'bring you there,' it's nauseating. Honestly, does anyone, anywhere, actually like this 'shaky-cam' stuff? Not that I've seen. So Hollywood, please, stop doing it.
Anyway, the shaky-cam would have been forgivable if it were used just during the action scenes, but it persists even during scenes of dialog. Editing a scene of four people talking in an empty gymnasium like it's a cracked-out music video is just moronic and distracting.
Besides the shaky-cam, there was quite a number of things this movie did poorly, shouldn't have done, or didn't do enough of.
The political aspect of the film is underdeveloped and dumbed down. Government Agents boil down the complex social, political, and economic situations in Saudi Arabia to "if they loose control of the government, they loose control of the oil, and that can't happen." How insightful! 'The Kingdom' could have probably been set anywhere, for how much the political aspect of the film played into it.
The drama of the film basically comes from the Saudi hosts yelling at the FBI Agents not to do things. The Agents wish to investigate a building outside of the attacked compound, the Saudis yell and say 'no.' Not because of the oceans of cultural difference that separate the two groups, oh no, really just for no reason at all.
Seemingly every scene ended with a "Saudi Arabia and America are different" joke. "That's the sh*t" "Sh*t? You must use bathroom?" "No, silly-head!" *cut to next scene* The first few were actually funny. After about five, it got annoying.
The investigation scenes are somewhat pointless, and really don't lead to much of anything. Chris Cooper oversees the excavation of a hole, Jennifer Garner does forensics, etc. They really don't deduce anything overly important, or do anything at all, really. They don't seem to share their findings much, either. It seemed like they were just there to fill up space, in all honesty.
Finnally, they bust some small terrorist cell, find a bunch of guns, are told it's a great success, and are told to leave. On the car ride out, they're attacked by the terrorists in full force. There's a car wreck or two, and the terrorists kidnap Jason Bateman's character. That makes sense, because he's not the main character (Foxx), the grizzled veteran (Cooper) or the hot girl (Garner). Why they don't just kill the Agents while they're defenseless in upturned cars is beyond me. Anyway, Foxx and co. precede to get their friend back in one of the most random, unwarranted, and pointless actions scenes ever. Get ready for some shaky-cam! Foxx kills about a dozen terrorists without much effort, shoots about 200 shots from a 20 round clip without once reloading, saves himself from a grenade by tossing it four feet to the right, and eventually saves his friend with co. miraculously intact. Oh, they also find Abu Hamza, the terrorist mastermind they were looking for. How convenient! What luck! WOW! This final act, which was supposed to be thrilling and suspenseful, was anything but.
The movie ends with them returning home, and they there's an overly sappy 'we're back, thank God' scene, which ends with Foxx and and Arab girl saying "kill 'em all." The mega-poignant last scene ends with an out-of-focus close-up of the girl's FOREHEAD, for f*ck's sake. How brilliant!
All in all, in terms of action and thrillers, there are much better movies. In terms of politics, there are few that do it worse than "The Kingdom." It may just be that this movie rubbed me the wrong way, but nonetheless, "The Kingdom," if not terrible as I make it out to be, certainly isn't great.