Robin Hood

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe know how to make epic hero movies. Throw in some great supporting actors (William Hurt, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, and the bad-ass Widmore mercenary from Lost) and you have the foundation for a great summer movie.

The hero this time around is Robin Hood. And as I watched the movie, I got the sense that Ridley and Russell were drinking some beers one evening and throwing darts at a board covered in historical heroes and the dart (or arrow I suppose in this case) happened to land on Robin.

Even though Robin Hood is fictional, or perhaps loosely based on a historical person, it seems like the writers of the script were not content enough to give us a traditional chronicle of Robin’s story. Instead they tried to intertwine Robin with historical kings and medieval battles.

In one of the movie's opening scenes Robin is returning home from the Crusades and fighting alongside the English king Richard the Lionheart. Later on in the movie Robin fights in an epic battle alongside Richard’s brother the newly appointed King John. Neither of these battles are traditional Robin Hood stories as far as I know. One of the problems with the script is not only are these new twists on the Robin Hood legend that the audience has to absorb, but they also leave the viewer scratching their heads about the accuracy of anything else in the movie. When I got home from the theater I was curious about how Richard the Lionheart actually died, and sure enough the movie’s depiction was a complete fabrication – well, other than the fact a crossbow hastened his demise.

The cinematography and production value of the movie are superb however. The opening castle-assault scenes (where Richard eventually dies) were exciting to watch, and I really love the way Scott portrays historical battles. It almost makes you nostalgic for the times when men fought alongside their companions with swords and arrows instead of using remote-controlled drone fighters to drop smart bombs at unsuspecting targets. As long as you’ve played video games and are desensitized to the violence that is.

The other epic battle scene near the end of the movie has Robin and his men fighting alongside King John to repel the French invaders. Again, the production is superb. I can only imagine how much time and money must have been put into filming this sequence. There was no cheesy CGI here. What was cheesy however, was when Marion arrives in the middle of the battle with her rag-tag band of orphan kids. At first I thought it was supposed to be intentional comic relief!

One of the criticisms I had read about the movie is that it’s too similar to Gladiator. I thought that criticism was pretty fair. In particular, it really seemed like Mr. Scott was trying to use his old formula with King John. I thought they were trying way too hard to make John just like Joaquin Phoenix’s character in Gladiator, complete with crazy outbreaks, table flipping insanity, and jealousy of the hero's popularity among the masses.

Overall, I felt it was a pretty mediocre beginning to the summer blockbuster season for me. I know the movie has been out for a while, but it was the first one I’ve seen this summer, (which in my opinion officially begins on Memorial Day weekend). I would say to go see the movie if you want an entertaining, war/hero movie, and don’t care too much about plot or historical accuracy. Personally, I'm hoping the summer has some better material in store.

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Acting: 3 out of 5
Story/Script: 2 out of 5
Cinematography/Production: 5 out of 5