Robin Hood Review

Well, after my first review of A Nightmare on Elm Street I decided to continue reviewing the "must see" movies of 2010. Next up is Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. This film sees a fairly star studded cast with Russell Crowe, who as we know has worked with Scott many times in the past in such huge films as Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster and Body of Lies. Crowe takes on the role of Sir Robin Longstride or as we know him Robin Hood the legendary outlaw of 12th century English folklore. Alongside Crowe we have Cate Blanchett as Lady Marian, Oscar Isaac who also starred with Crowe in 2008's Body of Lies as King John, Mark Strong as the king's henchman Sir Godfrey and other legendary faces such as William Hurt, Max von Sydow and Kevin Durand of TV's Lost who stars as Little John.
The film has been in production since 2007 when Universal Studios bought the rights to the script which was originally to be called Nottingham. The original idea for the film saw Crowe as the Sheriff on Nottingham but the role had the Sheriff as the film's protagonist. Scott became unhappy with both that idea and the script so in 2008 it was to be rewritten into a film about Robin Hood and how he became the outlaw we all know today.
The film, set at the turnof 12th century England is based in Nottingham, which at the time was just a village. Longstride returns under the guise of Robert Loxley to return the crown of the dead Richard the Lion Heart and finds its people are being suppressed by the king's new Sheriff of Nottingham (English actor and star of BBC's Spooks, Matthew Macfadyen). In light of what he sees he, along with his band of Merry Men set out to free his fellow villagers from the tyrannical reign of King John. But as it turns out King John is not the villain at all, his trusted friend Sir Godfrey is a traitor conspiring with French King Phillip, attempting to turn Englishmen against Englishmen so the French can swoop in and take over.

Crowe really went all out to really nail the the man of the legends. He began reading many historic books that took him a total of ten months to really get under the skin of the character and tell a decent tale, he was quoted saying "This has got to be the best ever done, otherwise I should be doing something else." But Crowe's enthusiasm did not end there, he hired a fitness coach to help him lose the excess weight he had gained for his role in Body of Lies and even took up archery for four months and can now hit a target from 45 meters. Both he and Cate Blanchett also had an accent coach so both could pull off a believable East Midlands accent for their roles.
"Cometh the hour, cometh the man. The time for pretence is over" Sir Walter Loxley.

I was a bit dense going into this. I actually thought it was a tale of the man who "stole from the rich and gave to the poor" but it's not that at all. It is in fact a tale of his origins, some of you probably knew that but I did not. And the fact that I put info above explaining what it was makes me appear even stupider.

My first real qualm was the film's running time. It is a Ridley Scott film and a lot of his film's are really long but I must say on finally standing up after two hours and 20 or so minutes my arse was numb and my legs were jelly. Although Crowe had an accent coach to help him with this role at times his accent was a mixed bag of Geordie, Scouse, Irish and his native Australian. I do not really know what a person from Nottingham sounds like but I am sure it's none of the above. And while I am on the subject of accents, Kevin Durand's attempt at what I can presume was Scottish was pretty damn dreadful too. Ah well, can't win them all boys.
The film had a few battle scenes but the majorities were rather brief. The opening scene where the English led by King Richard stormed the French Challus Castle was rather impressive but also very short as were the scenes with Sir Godfrey and his secret French army attempting to collect for the king. We see them quite easily take Barnsdale but the rest is not shown in any real capacity aside from the trail they took on an on screen map. Although there is a fight scene involving Sir Godfrey and a blind and very old Sir Walter Loxley was both a little comical but rather good.
Crowe had his trademark monologue to inspire the masses much like his speech in Gladiator did the trick and he managed to gain huge support for the following battle against Godfrey at Pepper Harrow.

I thought Oscar Isaac as King John gave easily the best performance followed by Max von Sydow. The king was both clever yet clueless aswell as being incredibly arrogant and petty. Cementing him as the film's best character by far. Having Mark Addy as Friar Tuck was also a nice touch. And again, on the subject of casting. Mark Strong gets his face in everywhere these days, he has worked with Crowe and Scott before in Body of Lies and just last year he was in Sherlock Holmes and then Kick-Ass and now he plays yet another bad guy. I am not complaining because he is a great actor but damn overkill or what!

I also love how Crowe supposedly took up archery fully to flesh out his character, I think he fires about two arrows in the entire film. One of which you see coming a mile off. Sadly though the film's big final fight scene with Godfrey, the French, the English and even King John himself was over rather quickly too and very anti climactic. I said to myself, the incoming French ships housing King of France, Phillip will see the carnage on the beach and retreat…they did. Phillip and Godfrey's diabolical plan to screw over John and cause a Civil War in England so the French could come over and take control was an epic fail.

In conclusion we get rid of the French but King John, out of envy and pettiness over the fact that Longstride was the real hero and not him declare Robin and his Merry Men to be outlaws who must be hunted down by the rather comical Sheriff of Nottingham. Thus giving us the story we actually do know.

My verdict, rather disappointing and incredibly slow. It galloped along (pun intended) at rather an alarmingly slow pace and seemed a little convoluted in places. I kinda had it pegged as the first real "blockbuster" of the summer but it fell miles behind my already low expectations. As I left the cinema the entire film just instantly vanished from my thoughts, not the desired effect Scott was going for.

2/5