When Ridley Scott put the first cut of Kingdom of Heaven together, the film was close to three hours long. At the request of the studio, Ridley Scott reluctantly cut the film down to just over two hours, which unfortunately hurt the film overall.
However, once the film left cinemas, Ridley Scott created the Extended Cut, bring it back to its original cut. The result is one of the best Director's Cuts ever created, possibly even the best. While Orlando Bloom isn't terrific in the lead role, he still does a very good job and is surrounded by a great cast including Jeremy Irons, Eva Green, Brendon Gleeson and Edward Norton. One thing Ridley Scott does brilliantly though is creating heroes and villains on both sides so that no side is truly good or truly evil.