I can tell right now this may wind up a popular DVD when it arrives due to the powerful audio and beautiful backdrops, but the movie itself was really unremarkable. Spend three hours tweaking your home theater and you'll thank me later.
The acting was a tad on the cheesy side, the scene transitions were confusing, and the characters were boring. Orlando Bloom makes a sweet Elven archer... not much else. I pretended to fall asleep several times during the preview screening in the hopes of making a point, but there was actually a point that I nodded off.
When there was action, it was extensive, but suprisingly tame. It's just a lot of the standard choppy-framerate-shaky-camera hack'n'slash you've seen everywhere else. You never actually see anyone lose a head or apendage, unlike Gladiator and Braveheart, which are bounds better than this feature... and I'm not just saying that due to the lack of violence.
The historical accuracy of the Crusades were also forgone to feed us a preachy, politically correct message. I anticipated it would be like this, so I tried to ignore it, but Ridley Scott went out of his way to make a statement rather than tell a story. I walked out of the theater uninspired and slightly confused... unlike Braveheart and Gladiator.
At least the tickets were free!
