The Kingdom

honestly, the only thing that attracted me to this film when I first saw its promotional poster was the involvement of Jennifer Garner as one of the leads. I'm a fan of Jennifer Garner, especially with his role as agent Sydney Bristow in TV Series Alias, one of my favourites. however, after seeing it's long trailer, my impression to this film dropped down several levels, because I was not quite engaged by what I saw, especially after knowing that Garner has quite a little part in this film.

clearly, the phrase "don't judge a book by it's cover" does explain a lot in every situation, including this one. watching this film is just like an unforgettable orgasmic experience. I first compared this as 2007's Blood Diamond, but looks like this one is quite a hit; both of them are good in different ways.

The Kingdom covers an investigation of the bombing in Riyadh by an FBI team, consisting of Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper). The whole film itself is fictional, but it is actually based on the true even.

overall, I love how this film represents itself. I love how the ending completes the whole journey by its kickin-ass' quotes. I love how Peter Berg set and moderated all of his crews and casts for the realistic values of the film. however, probably the overusing of the active and dynamic hand-held camera is not quite a wise idea. it's good for gaining such tense, but most of all, during the movie I felt quite dizzy and sick because of the quick movements of the camera, and not even once in that film the shot is steady and calm.

bringing up terrorism and jihad as a theme, this film really shows us the ignorance of how humanity involves in our lives these days. ok, probably that sounds a bit cheesy, but at least that shows how I feel after seeing the film. Humanity can easily be erased by a lot of thing.

the various Islamic terms used in this film might be a problem in third world countries. society won't easily accept this film because of the sensitive issue. especially in my country, where most of the civilians are Moslem, a lot of censorship might occur, and various protest acts might also happen. fortunately, it seems impossible that this film is going to be banned in Indonesia, as the trailer has been shown in the cinemas across the nation.

Cast: Jamie Fox, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Directed by: Peter Berg
Written by: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Country: US
Runtime: 110 min.