This is the latest attempt to bring the tale of Robin Hood to the big screen. This adaptation, directed by Otto Bathurst, stars Taron Egerton as the titular hero. Robin returns from fighting in the Crusades to discover his house has been repossessed by the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham and his lady love, Marion is now married to someone else, believing Robin to be dead. Robin, with the help of his new friend John, plans revenge on the villainous Sheriff.
Firstly, this film has had rubbish reviews (32 metascore) and has done badly at the box office (it currently has only made about half of its budget worldwide) and there is a reason. Not least that it is rubbish. But, not only this, it was a fundamentally bad idea in the first place. Who was really asking for this? Who wanted to see another Robin Hood film? A potential sequel to the Ridley Scott version was cancelled after it underperformed at the box office, so why would making a different version be a good idea? And then releasing it at the same time as a film like Fantastic Beasts, which is appealing to a similar audience and already has an established fan base! And is actually good! The film is really poor and I will assess why now:
- Action- This film is supposed to be an action-adventure, but despite this, pretty much every action scene in the film is just visually terrible. They’re boring and completely unrealistic. The problem with using a bow and arrow as the main weapon is that there always seems to be an infinite amount of arrows. No matter how many people Robin shoots he still has more arrows and its just ridiculous. Similarly, there’s one moment where Robin is shot by an arrow in the chest, but seems fine just a bit later. It’s just lazy and inconsistent. I know it’s supposed to be an action-adventure, so its not supposed to be completely realistic, but come on!
- Acting- No one really looks like they can be bothered. Jamie Foxx, as John and Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlet, both look as if they’d much rather be doing something else. Eve Hewson as Marion is bad. Taron Egerton is a likeable-enough lead, as we know from Kingsman, but he just has very little to work with. The most entertaining part of the film is Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff, who is so over the top-ly evil, you feel as if you should boo every time he appears on screen, swishing his cloak. He’s having fun at least.
- Visuals- The filming was done in Dubrovnik, which while it is a beautiful city, doesn’t really look like medieval Nottingham, it looks like Dubrovnik. I know this is not a major thing but if the film had been better I wouldn’t have noticed as much. The same with the clothes, which look too modern and not medieval. Similar to the Guy Ritchie King Arthur film, which I’m reliably informed is also bad.
- Plot- The story is so predictable, you can see everything coming a mile off. The dialogue is also pretty poorly written which doesn’t help. The film ends with a set up for a sequel, but I would be amazed if that ever happens.
Robin Hood is not the worst film ever made and its not unwatchable. It was probably more entertaining than The Girl in the Spider’s Web and not offensive like The Predator but that still doesn’t prevent it from being rubbish. The best thing about it is Ben Mendelsohn being evil, but other than that it’s not worth your time. 2 Stars.
Movie Night 