Robin Hood
Robin of the hood is a man of myth and legend and his motto of taking from the rich and giving to the poor is appealing to all ages. When you strip away the myth and legend though Robin was just a man trying to right in a world of injustice. Will Robin Hood be able to show us the man behind the legend or prove that some legends are better left they way they are?
What I Liked:
The premise of the film seems to have been to tell a story about the man behind the myth. Gone are the Merry Men living in the woods, replaced with a battle hardened group of friends. Gone is the theme of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, replaced by just general tyranny and the evils of being French. Most of the characters have been given new roles as well such as the devious Sheriff of Nottingham who is replaced by some sort of lecherous imbecile and Friar Tuck who is less pious than Robin Hood. For their parts, the actors did a fine job of portraying their roles on the screen, though that is the only bright spot in this dull and uninteresting film.
What I Didn't Like:
The reasons this film is dull and uninteresting is a simple one, by stripping out everything that made Robin Hood, “Robin Hood” the film also stripped out nearly everything that made the character and the story named after him, interesting and fun. It is amazing that Hollywood can take a story that has endured since the 14th century and completely make it uninteresting. For all the effort that went into making the story and the characters more lifelike and gritty it sure ended up a rather drab story with and shallow characters. The story itself had it not been a disappointing Robin Hood story would still have been only slightly palpable, with no catharsis from the main characters, inconsistent or nonexistent villains and a love hate relationship that can be turn on and off like a light switch. Now mind you all of this is supposed to be the real story of Robin Hood's beginnings, not some childish fantasy. The story and the plot is nonsense and the historical setting (for all the good it has already done for the film) is almost completely inaccurate and a little insulting, if you are going to strip the fantasy and fun out of a legend and then root it in reality, at least do some basic fact checking.
On a technical level this film is also rather weak, some shots are over saturated, some have noticeable contrast issues, all in all the film looks like it was shot by an amateur camera operator. The direction is not much better, some scenes made me cringe just looking at them, with odd angles or a quick zoom to a characters face for a reaction shot. The battle scenes fair better except for the final showdown which is almost a frame by frame recreation of the landing at Normandy from Saving Private Ryan. I expected better from the likes of Ridley Scott, who still manages to find something to blow up in this “historically accurate” period piece.
In Conclusion:
Lets get one thing straight, Robin Hood is a man of fantasy, tales such as his and King Author may have once been based on real characters in history but these stories have since transcended those constraints. No longer are these stories about men, they are stories about pseudo-gods who did great and fantastic things. We love them and are drawn to them for not only their heroic deeds but for the larger ideals that these characters would later take on. Giving to the poor, chivalry, heroic knights, bravery in the face of certain, doing what is right no matter the cost, these are what things we love about these types of stories. These legends speak to us, not with words but with ideals, they are larger than life, history has no place here; so why bother? Could this film have worked as a period piece? Probably. The idea of a complex and real character behind the Robin Hood myth is a strong one but one that would require a very strong script and a compelling story. For all it's bluster and pomp this is just a shoddy story about a common soldier who takes the place of Nobleman, there is nothing particularly heroic or noble about the tale. It is the story about a man named Robin Hood and nothing more.
