KINGDOM OF HEAVEN — ** — Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Liam Neeson; rated R (violence, gore, mild profanity, brief sex, racial epithets).

"Kingdom of Heaven" has the nasty habit of quickly killing off its most interesting and compelling characters, those in whom the film invests time and tries to develop.

That's more of a reflection of the limitations of this material and the filmmakers than it is the star, Orlando Bloom, who still hasn't quite reached that plateau where he can carry his own movie.

Bloom stars as Balian, a French blacksmith who is mourning the death of his wife and child. Along comes Godfrey (Liam Neeson), an aging crusading knight who claims to be Balian's long-lost father. And before he dies, Godfrey knights Balian and sends him to Jerusalem, hoping his troubled offspring can find some sort of redemption there.

Instead, Balian finds himself stuck in the middle of a power struggle between overzealous Crusaders and the leprous King of Jerusalem (Edward Norton, apparently channeling Marlon Brando), who is trying to forge a truce between the Christian and Saracen armies.

Further complicating things is Sibylla (Eva Green), the king's sister, who has her eye on Balian — even though she's already married to one of the rebellious knights (Marton Csokas).

Ridley Scott and screenwriter William Monahan seem determined to make this the most politically correct version of the Crusades possible, which causes the characters to lack an edge. And they keep re-emphasizing the same points with cliched dialogue and death-bed philosophizing.

Also, most of the film feels like a 90-minute tease leading up to the climactic battle scene. But by then, it's simply too late. The audiences have already been talked to death.

Dirtied up as he is here, Bloom tries valiantly — in vain — to shoulder most of the film's heavy lifting. But that task probably should have gone to the considerably more interesting supporting cast. Neeson and Jeremy Irons are underused, as is Brendan Gleeson, who briefly chews the scenery as a rebellious Templar stirring up trouble in Jerusalem.

Still, it's not really Bloom's fault that this Crusade drama is such a forgettable dud. Director Ridley Scott has loaded the film with so many of the same things he used in his Oscar-winning epic "Gladiator" that "Kingdom of Heaven" might as well be called "Gladiator Jr." (Though there are also elements swiped from the "Lord of the Rings" movies and even "The Alamo.")

Someone like Peter Weir might have been better equipped to deal with more thoughtful material here, as opposed to Scott's sledge-hammer approach.

"Kingdom of Heaven" is rated R for strong scenes of action violence (swordplay, arrow fire, stabbings and some explosive mayhem), some pretty graphic gore, scattered use of mild profanity (mostly religiously based), a brief and fairly discreet sex scene, and use of some racial epithets. Running time: 145 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com