The Kingdom is a film that has been receiving some of the most mixed reviews in quite some time. And when I say mixed, I mean close to diametrically opposed. Some adore the film, such as Empire Magazine, who call it a “heart-pounding drama”. Then there are those who hate it, for diametrically opposed reason once again. The Asia Times call the film a “cult of FBI-worship” with its “Saudi bashing”, yet Box Office Mojo claim that the film “offers more of the same anti-Americanism made by and for Americans” and that it infers that “America caused and deserved mass murder”. There’s even posts like this appearing on IMDB. There hasn’t been a film as controversial as this in quite some time, so naturally I was curious.

The plot is based on the true bombings of a US complex in Saudi Arabia in 2003 and an oil company in 1996. Here, Islamic terrorists infiltrate an American compound and gun down families, while also planting a devastating bomb. The FBI are determined to investigate, despite political tension forcing the US government to stand back. Frustrated, Special Agent Flury manages to blackmail his way into the country, assembling his crack team of experts to spend the five days given to them to find the culprits involved.

After watching the film, I was disappointed to discover that The Kingdom instilled neither hatred nor joy in myself. While it does possess deep flaws, it is rather entertaining. When the FBI team make it to Saudi Arabia, they find themselves immobilised by Saudi protocol and tradition. There’s an undeniable joy when the two forces, the FBI and the Saudi police force, led by Colonel Faris Al Ghazi, eventually join to defeat a cruel enemy. When one of the FBI agents is kidnapped and brought to a potential beheading, the film climaxes in a thoroughly entertaining shoot-out, all shot in the gritty, shaky-cam style of the Bourne trilogy.

But it is in the film’s attempt to be political that truly infuriates. Much has been said about the film’s closing moments, which turn a rather joyous moment into something a lot dark, by drawing parallels between both sides. It’s a sour note than can be commended in its attempt to make people leave the cinema thinking. However, that’s the most the film can do. Drawing parallels between the US’s main body of high-profile investigation and a group of religious terrorists is a very dangerous parallel to make, and the enraged and opposing reactions to this film are all prompted by the film’s inability in dealing with this issue throughout the film, tacking on this afterthought in an attempt to seem intelligent.

And looking back upon the film, any attempts to feel realistic fail miserably. It all starts well with a well-paced and well-designed summary of the US relationship with Saudi Arabia. But once The FBI reach their destination, the portrayal of the Saudis is laughable. Their police force are deemed utterly incapable, as they trod over bomb evidence, as if utterly lacking in any training or sense of forensics. Later in the film, the Feds roll into a neighbourhood on the trail of their captured friend- Al Ghazi warns them that this is a dangerous area, and in seconds everyone in the street pulls out an Ak-47 or rocket-launcher. This gross reductionism of Saudi’s as either idiotic or as terrorists may have been acceptable in an Arnie 80’s action flick, or even in modern film, if it didn’t try t set itself out as a “serious” film dealing with a “serious” issue.

And even in terms of drama, the film stumbles. Jennifer Garner’s character is a ridiculous super-agent, trained in forensics, yet an expert in middle-east politics and firearms. And there’s a few cringe-worthy scenes at the beginning with Flurry’s son.

The Kingdom is not the film that extreme reviews have praised or blasted. Rather, it falls somewhere in the middle, a traditional and entertaining action/crime movie that makes a rather flat attempt to appear like an authentic and realistic drama about terrorism.