Robin Hood
After a hard fought crusade, King Richard is left with nothing but debt and doubt. On his return to England he finds himself pillaging French towns in hopes to recover from his mounting debt. To his peril he ventures too hard and ends up becoming the victim of a lucky arrow shot. With the future of England at stake protagonists and heroes start rising up, one with a desire to conquer and another with a desire for justice and equality.
To this backdrop Ridley Scott starts to retell the story of one such hero, Robin of Locksley aka Robin Longstride (Crowe). With all the care and attention to detail that Scott can muster he creates a solid storyline and develops strong characters for his version of Robin Hood. And to his credit Scott has delivered on an Epic tale. Set primarily around the small town of Nottingham, the tale of a fatherless son is told with great detail which in the end brings the audience to a deeper understanding of history and personalities.
This story is not one that many people will be used to, with alot of the other Robin Hood’s focusing on the mystery of an honourable bandit. Scott sets the foundation of the Robin Hood legend. Its a tale about the making of a legend, the background of England and fine fine details of a realm close to collapse.
And this is the one and only down fall of this movie. At times it felt like being in a library reading all the books on England’s history before being told the good parts. The story grows in a very linear fashion, sometimes feeling a little too slow as the fine details are meticulously laid into place. But if you persevere to the end you will be rewarded with a well told story, one which picks up pace rapidly towards the end.
The cinematography was great, it was flawless and well detailed. The characters were very well played out, and all roles cast seemed to fit nicely. We are entertained often by the odd action scene, however it is not till the end that you really get into the fast paced action with a penultimate Protagonist vs Hero fight that really does satisfy. (Seriously i’ve never been one for the big bad guy vs good guy end fight thing, but this was a goodie)
Robin Hood certainly didn’t inspire me, however it was a great piece of epic story telling. The one thing it didn’t do was become just another episode in a long line of Robin Hood knock offs. This is a Ridley Scott tale, and his spin on Robin Hood is very good, and its not just another Gladiator movie either. Just remember its meant to be an epic and you will be entertained with a number of very clever moments of dialogue genius along the way.
So stock up on lots of popcorn… get out of the approaching winter weather… and enjoy a bit of good old fashioned Epic cinema.
Reviewed by: Urbankiwi
Released: 13th May 2010
Rating: M Contains Violence and some Sexual Content
Duration: 140 minutes
Genre: Action / Adventure
Starring: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Scott Grimes, Mark Strong, Danny Huston
Director: Ridley Scott
