Movie Review: The Kingdom

The Kingdom was the first movie I've watch since The Bourne Ultimatum and I was very glad I took the time out to catch it. The premise of the movie was simple really: a terrorist cell blows up a bomb inside a compound built for American workers in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (hence the name of the film) and a team of FBI agents fight politics home and aboard to find the man behind it. Essentially, that's the story in a nutshell. It had great interesting if somewhat stereotypical characters but the acting more then makes up for it. But it also had wonderful moments in this film with give you a chance to bond with them. Perhaps giving us characters we can identify with so easily gave us a platform from which we start to care about them much easier and much quicker; something which would prove we useful as the story plays itself out.

I have a problem classifying this movie simple because its not a full on action movie, neither is it a full on crime mystery and it also falls short on being a strong comment on the political climate that is now existing in the Middle East. Some people will see this as a flaw in the movie but I rather think it's part of what made it so enjoyable.

Good and evil is seemingly played out very clearly in this film but at the end; what you get instead of a "good guys win, bad guys end up all died" scenario is a moral mirror with which one can look at themselves and ask themselves have they been rooting for the correct side.

Terrorism is probably one of the most horrid fears in our world today and this film addresses in with no holds barred. It doesn't put faceless victims on screen but rather gives you a look at how a normal peaceful afternoon can be shattered by the horrors of terrorism. It also gives you a look at the "answer" to terrorism: Vengeance. Do not get me wrong, those who commit senseless mass murder must be punished but it must be done so in the name of justice and not revenge. The desire for payback can make violence of this sort play itself out in an endless cycle from which the only ones who will suffer are the innocent. It is clear from this film that the ones who will suffer for our inability to co-exist peacefully on this earth will be our children.

We are continually divided on many issues ranging form race, religion, ethnicity and so forth and the longer we choose not to focus on what we have in common, on what might bring us together, the longer the innocent will suffer.

What I loved most about this film is that it doesn't tell you who is right and who is wrong. It is something you decide for yourself but what you get is characters in whom you can see and understand their motivations and from there you can see yourself in their shoes. And at the end, when the guns are silence and the cost is counted, you find yourself in a moment of reflection, wishing that what you saw was nothing more then fantasy before realizing it is a fictionalised version of what is happening in the world today. 8/10.