MyRating: YYDirector: Ridley Scott
Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Oscar Isaac, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, Mark Addy, Alan Doyle, Matthew Macfayden, Danny Huston, Douglas Hodge
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content
An expert archer, Robin Longstride (Crowe), who serves as an army under the British King, King Richard the Lionheart (Huston), finds the way out of the army and becomes a free man, after King Richard died in a battle against France. But when Robin saw an ambush by France's henchmen, masterminded by Godfrey (Strong), an Englishman but a traitor, towards a group of British soldiers led by Sir Robert Loxley (Hodge) with a duty of returning King Richard's crown to London, and the whole British soldiers were wiped out, Robin puts himself in the position to finish their duty to return the crown by admitting himself as the late Sir Robert Loxley.
Together with his friends, Will Scarlet (Grimes), Allan A'Dayle (Doyle) and Little John (Durand), Robin goes to London to return the king's crown to the new king, Prince John (Isaac), King Richard's brother. He also travels to Nottingham to return the sword of Sir Robert Loxley to his father, Sir Walter Loxley (Sydow). There, Robin meets with Robert Loxley's widow, Marion (Blanchett), a woman who doubted his motivation at the beginning.
However, England is not getting better under the new king, King John, as he rules ruthlessly by raising taxes to his countrymen, and if they do not willing to pay, the soldiers will rob from them. This creates suffering and unsatisfaction among the people and King John soon makes enemies with many of his country's knights and noblemen. A civil war is on their sights. And while the British has to face a chaos within their country, the French quietly sneaks at British's doorstep with full armies, ready to attack them. In this situation, Robin and his friends should stand up to fight for their country and expel the enemies from their land.
This is the kind of movie with a story that the more I be patient, the boring I am. It's called "what you expect is not what you get" syndrome (at least for me). The movie begins with a promising battle where British armies attack a France's fortress. But then, the story just slowly fell flat with a long introduction to the legend (and this is again another version of Robin Hood's background). When I was halfway through the movie, I said to myself, "Well, this is a long introduction to the Robin Hood character they give." And when I was somewhere near the end of the movie, I again said to myself, "Hmm. This whole movie is the introduction of Robin Hood!" And it was confirmed when the end title showed up. Somehow, I don't think it was necessary to take such a long retelling of the background of an already very popular legend such as Robin Hood. Introduction is okay, but not the whole movie, because people just want to see Robin Hood and his actions as the heroic thief, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, not the one that leads British armies in a battle against French. Maybe if I just knew that this whole movie was merely a prequel to the legend before I watched it, probably I might not have been this disappointed. But the fact is, majority people do not read the plot of a movie in the media before they watch it, they just know that this is a Robin Hood movie.
The movie was also lack of actions. There was a big battle scene at the end, but by that time, I have totally lost my patience towards this movie. That battle became nothing more than just people fighting people for me, and I didn't seem to care what was the result, because I didn't get the connections with the characters. Russell Crowe was find as Robin Hood (and I like Russell Crowe). I think he did his job well (except he mumbled a lot), the same as the other actors who gave quite good performances. But the tiring script somehow made me lose my interests to them (If you want to make a big impact battle scene at the end of a movie, then you have to make maximum connections between your characters and your audiences, only after that you will see the audiences jump in their seats because they care about the characters and the battle they are in). This was the feeling that I didn't get from this Ridley Scott's version.
One funny thing is, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Macfayden) did not have an important role here. He sort of played hide and seek with me in the entire movie, as I tried to find him all the way. Indeed, he was the supporting of the supporting casts in this movie.
If the main character of this movie was not named Robin and his love interest was not named Marion, and the movie was not titled Robin Hood itself, then I think I would never know that I was watching a Robin Hood movie at all. Actually if the filmmaker wants to be (brutally) honest, I think they should title this movie as "The Chronicles of Robin Hood" or "The Introduction of Robin Hood by the Great Ridley Scott" or "The Day Robin Got His Nickname, Robin Hood" or maybe "Robin Hood Origins: Chapter One" or just simply "Robin Hood Begins" (with a result maybe less people will come to see the movie).
I happened to enjoy Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Don't care some people said that it was a very cheesy film, because in my opinion, it was a very good, total fun, and highly entertaining movie, with its memorable soundtracks. And I loved this Kevin Costner's version very much.
If you are a fan and love Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, then I doubt that you will like this new version of Robin Hood. (MJ)
