Kingdom of Heaven—bad script, miscast lead, multiple battle scenes ripped straight from LOTR, virtually no characterization or character development, stupid both-sidesism politics, and also generally complete ahistorical nonsense.
Yet there’s just something about it. The cinematography, design, costumes, supporting actors, and score are all great. Even though the film is basically fantasy, it at least attempts to portray a world that Hollywood rarely approaches. (Agora, kind of a similar movie, is actually probably much better.) Also the Christians are mostly bad or stupid, nearly all of them die violent pointless deaths, it could maybe be argued that the film is anti-colonial, and Saladin wins.
Elysium—white savior film imagines that one dude (with a handful of helpers) can defeat pretty much all space liberals and space fascists. It’s completely absurd. The characters are also one-dimensional. But other than that, it’s a film about “rich people bad” which is otherwise pretty well done and entertaining.
