Robin Hood opens this years Cannes Film Festival and already there is quite an amount of activity online (mainly from my American counterparts) regarding it being a disappointment and it being a rather empty film. I’ve read some other reviews that are quite the opposite, so all in all there is a huge mixed bag of reaction to the latest collaboration of Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe. Honestly, I’m not sure why there is such a negative vibe about Robin Hood as it is rather enjoyable and entertaining.
Now for those of you familiar with Robin Hood of old, forget the tights, Americans trying to do dodgy accents and Bryan Adams songs. If you want to get technical about it, Ridley Scotts version of the legend, is more of a prequel. It tells the story of Robin Longstride (Crowe) who is an archer in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion (old Lion Heart himself played by Danny Huston).
In the opening of the movie, he gets an arrow to the neck and Robin Longstride and a few of his mates decide to head for the hills and leave the battle. As they go wandering through the countryside, trying to find a ferry back to merry old England, they discover an ambush, which involves a double crossing “French when it suits him” Godfrey (Mark Strong). In between a bout of archery and weaponry, Longstride and his mates, who at this point include Little John and Will Scarlet discover a few of the dead Kings aides (who are all but dead) and the Kings horse with said dead Kings crown attached. Before they decide to dress up as Knights, grab the ferry and give the bad news to the Queen while presenting her with the crown, Robin of Loxley gives Longstride his sword to return to his father, as his dying wish.
From here, Longstride turns up at the door of Walter and Marion Loxley, gives them the bad news about the sons passing. Wally Loxley decides its best to portray Longstride as his actual son, so Robin becomes Robin Loxley. Confused yet?
The movie thunders along at a solid pace as the latter half involves Robin giving a stirring speech where he unites all of England to take on the French which are landing at the Cliffs of Dover, thanks to the double crossing Godfrey.
Up until recently, I was speculating that this might not have been much good, as Russell Crowe is donning the Gladiator look throughout. But as more and more clips start appearing online, I became less convinced of my original Gladatorial outlook and started getting intrigued with the whole thing.
Visually, this is an absolutely stunning and I do mean stunning film. From French long boats and Castles to tiny little villages, Ridley Scott has left no detail unturned here as he transports you to a time long since gone. Towards the end of the film there is a scene which shows hundreds on horseback thundering through the lush, green countryside. For me, this sums up the visuals. Truly spectacular!
Performance wise, Russell Crowe is solid as ever, although his accents can be a little off at times and is not truly consistent throughout. It’s not an Oscar worthy performance or anything, but he has got a great commanding presence on screen. As for the rest of the cast, they too put in decent performances. In particular Cate Blanchett as Marion and Mark Strong (yet again playing a bad guy) who is superb, but would have benefited from a few more scenes of him killing innocent people just to make you hate him even more!
Robin Hood clocks in at 140 minutes, and while at times there might be little bit of overkill with dialogue It’s these scenes which let the movie down a bit, but not enough to cause major derailment. At times though, it was so fantastic I never wanted the thing to end. It is a thoroughly engrossing movie, helped no less by spectacular visuals. Robin Hood is certainly one of the big movies of the Summer and I really, really enjoyed it and you should certainly check it out. So as this is a prequel, I’d love to see the continuation of the series with the same crew, fingers crossed. Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe have done a spectacular job here, and have only just missed the bull's-eye by millimetres.
