The Kingdom: Film Review
The
film, The Kingdom, written by Matthew Michael Carahan and directed by Peter
Berg, was a film about FBI agents Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), Grant Sykes
(Chris Cooper), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), and Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman)
who travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to conduct an investigation and seek revenge
after their friend/partner was killed during a terrorist attack.
I really enjoyed this movie. It was quite an eye-opener, and very visual and realistic. I liked the opening credits because it showed the history between America and Saudi Arabia throughout the years including a timeline with clips of film that were in black and white. This small part of the film really helped me to set a starting point for the movie, as well as the overall tone of the movie. I also liked how the movie began in what seemed like a random setting, which I gradually began to realize was in Saudi Arabia as the movie slowly jumped right into the action.
The dialogue of the film is something that I liked as well. The characters used words, such as curse words at just the right moments to represent anger, frustration, panic, etc, which really was a plus for me, as opposed to many movies that include random curse words in the dialogue which is unnecessary and adds nothing to the film. The dialogue of the film also seemed to really represent each character and define who they were, and made them unique from one another. For example, the character that Jason Bateman played often spoke in a sarcastic-like tone, and occasionally spoke in a way that seemed cocky, unlike everyone else, which really made his role stand out more than the other characters. Also, each character had a different amount of dialogue throughout the entire film, which also helped me to understand the character’s role, and their importance in the film.
Out of the entire film, the thing that stuck out to me the most, however, were the costumes that were used in the movie. Once the main characters arrived to the plot setting (Saudi Arabia) of the film, Colonel Faris (Ashraf Barhom) constantly reminded the main characters that their protection was his main concern, and that they must be careful at all times. With that said, the costumes in the film played the most important role to me because during most of the film, the main characters were surrounded by the army and police officers, who all wore the same uniforms and outfits. This created a sense of uneasiness and on-the-edge feeling for me during the whole movie because I never knew if someone was going to jump into any of the scenes and attack the main characters.
I really enjoyed this movie. It was quite an eye-opener, and very visual and realistic. I liked the opening credits because it showed the history between America and Saudi Arabia throughout the years including a timeline with clips of film that were in black and white. This small part of the film really helped me to set a starting point for the movie, as well as the overall tone of the movie. I also liked how the movie began in what seemed like a random setting, which I gradually began to realize was in Saudi Arabia as the movie slowly jumped right into the action.
The dialogue of the film is something that I liked as well. The characters used words, such as curse words at just the right moments to represent anger, frustration, panic, etc, which really was a plus for me, as opposed to many movies that include random curse words in the dialogue which is unnecessary and adds nothing to the film. The dialogue of the film also seemed to really represent each character and define who they were, and made them unique from one another. For example, the character that Jason Bateman played often spoke in a sarcastic-like tone, and occasionally spoke in a way that seemed cocky, unlike everyone else, which really made his role stand out more than the other characters. Also, each character had a different amount of dialogue throughout the entire film, which also helped me to understand the character’s role, and their importance in the film.
Out of the entire film, the thing that stuck out to me the most, however, were the costumes that were used in the movie. Once the main characters arrived to the plot setting (Saudi Arabia) of the film, Colonel Faris (Ashraf Barhom) constantly reminded the main characters that their protection was his main concern, and that they must be careful at all times. With that said, the costumes in the film played the most important role to me because during most of the film, the main characters were surrounded by the army and police officers, who all wore the same uniforms and outfits. This created a sense of uneasiness and on-the-edge feeling for me during the whole movie because I never knew if someone was going to jump into any of the scenes and attack the main characters.
The Kingdom was a great movie that I recommend for everyone to see (however, I wouldn’t suggest it for younger kids) and was a definite eye-opener, especially the ending. The ending was completely unexpected, and really made me think. I assumed that the ending was going to be the stereotypical happy conclusion where everyone went home feeling good because they avenged their friends death and prevented future terrorist attacks, and right from there go straight to the credits. However, the ending was not that at all, and definitely did not disappoint.
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