I gave the 7 stars rating to the normal out of respect for the scale of the movie, the beautiful imagery and the actors performances, but watching it was an unpleasant experience. As I learned afterwards the movie was designed to last around 3 hours but the studio assumed the public wont have the patience for it and made Ridley Scott shorten it, taking out 40 mins worth of bits and pieces out to make it more accessible. That made the whole film feel incomplete, incoherent, frustrating. The full movie released as the directors cut has a completely different flow and depth - it is beautiful, poetic and a joy to immerse in, it would deserve 9 stars. It is known to be the most different version of a movie ever released in a directors cut, so do yourself the favor of watching that one.
Review of Kingdom of Heaven
