Robin Hood

Much like King Arthur, Robin Hood seems to be the kind of high adventure story that Hollywood has lost its way with.  It doesn't know how to have fun with the story, or with the action sequences.  It's filmed in murky grays and blacks, with many scenes lit only by a stray wisp of firelight.  When I think of the story of Robin and his Merry Men, the images of Errol Flynn or the Walt Disney animated version immediately spring to mind.  But in recent years, it seems like filmmakers want to go out of their way to convince us that the story is not that much fun.

Perhaps this all started back in 1991, with the Kevin Costner blockbuster, Prince of Thieves.  It seems like ever since then, Hollywood has been trying to make the story darker and more dreary.  At least that film had Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham to liven things up whenever he was on screen.  What do we get here?  Well, the filmmakers do seem to be trying to give us a somewhat modern spin.  The dialogue is current, and Maid Marian (played here by Eve Hewson) gets to be more than just a damsel in distress, though the screenplay never quite carries this idea as far along as it should.  But outside of that, there's little that stands out.  And just like the last Robin Hood movie that we got (the 2010 film directed by Ridley Scott that starred Russell Crowe), this one makes the mistake of acting as an origin story for the outlaw.  When Robin has formed his band and made his way into Sherwood Forest, the movie is over.  Why do we need an entire movie devoted to the origin?  Just give us the adventure story we came to see!  All I can say is the next time someone tries to film this story, I want them to just skip the whole background story, and cut straight to Robin hanging out with Little John, Friar Tuck and the rest in Sherwood.

But, I digress.  Here, we get Robin of Locksley (Taron Egerton from Kingsman) enjoying the life of being a Lord, until he is drafted and called to fight in the Crusades.  When he witnesses the cruelty of his fellow soldiers first hand, he turns against them, and is sent back home, only to find out that the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn) is taxing the local people into the poorhouse in order to pay for the war effort.  Not long after returning home, he comes across Little John (Jamie Foxx), who convinces Robin that they need to band together to fight the Sheriff's tyranny, and trains Robin in combat and the art of thieving.  The heroes begin to steal from the Sheriff's goons, while at the same time, Robin uses his title of prestige to infiltrate the inner circle of the wealthy, and find out what the Sheriff is truly up to.  Along the way, they are joined up with by others who want to see the reign of the Sheriff end.  These include Marian, Will Scarlet (Jamie Dornan), and Friar Tuck (Tim Minchin), who acts as the closest thing this movie has to comic relief, as he gets to throw out a one liner once in a while.

Director Otto Bathurst tries to liven up the story with modern day trappings and dialogue.  Maid Marian seems to be quite a modern day beauty dropped into Merry Ol' England, Jamie Foxx's Little John has a cool 2018 edge to his performance, and all of the battles are littered with modern day editing techniques, such as slowing down and speeding up the action at different times.  He even throws in a Narrator who seems to be very cutting and edgy for today's audience.  When the movie seems to be wrapping up, he tells us that this is not the end of the story, and we get a couple more scenes that act as bait for a sequel that will probably never get made.  I can see how these modern day trappings could work with the right approach, but this isn't it.  And what's wrong with making an old-fashioned swashbuckle adventure, anyway?  Are they just out of style in this day of superheroes?  I really hope not, but given that this movie acts as one big origin story, I have the sinking hunch that I may be right about those kind of movies being out of style.

Also modern are the special effects, which come across as being out of place in the film.  There are certain action sequences, such as a wagon chase across the streets, where the actors don't even seem to be inhabiting the shots, using CG and obvious green screen edits to place them against backdrops that just don't quite look right.  It all feels safe and very sanitized, as if the filmmakers were afraid to try anything remotely different, except adding a few modern day touches.  It all leads to a movie that is not exactly unwatchable, but is just so paint-by-numbers, it kind of leaves your brain the second you walk out of the theater.  It never offends, but it also never engages on any real level, so you're left with a fast food cinematic product that does its purpose, and then leaves you unsatisfied when it's done.

Like a lot of blockbusters, Robin Hood seems more interested in world building and setting up a franchise than it is in telling an enthralling adventure story that we've come to expect.  I never quite got the logic to this.  Yes, it has worked in the past (most notably the Marvel Cinematic Universe), but it has just as often floundered right out of the gate.  Instead of setting up a series right out of the gate, just give us one great movie that we actually would want to see more of.  If you can give us that, the rest will sort itself out. 

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