Robin Hood

So I thought this movie looked like it was going to be okay at best but I do love me some Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Alright, some Matthew Macfadyen and Mark Strong while I’m at it. It was also from the director of the hugely popular Gladiator and they were using the blue filter effect on the movie which I always enjoy. It was also basically the only movie worth watching that was being released this week so we decided to watch it as a part of the movie club. The movie actually came in a not so close second to Iron Man 2 and only brought in $36 million.







The movie stars the ultra dreamy Russell Crowe as the legendary Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett plays the character we know as Maid Marion. Also in the movie are William Hurt as William Marshall, Mark Strong as Sir Godfrey, and Matthew Macfadyen as Sheriff of Nottingham. The movie mixes fact and fiction to give us a fictionalized tale of Robin Hood’s life before he became the legendary character we know today.






I’m a history major so I like movies to either stay true to historical fact as much as possible or be very obvious that fictionalization is going on. I think this movie promoted itself as a historical period piece but it’s important to know that Robin Hood has never been verified as actually being a real person and most scholars believe he’s just a product of folklore. That being said, I wasn’t very upset with the plot of the movie. It used a lot of historical events in the plot and interweaved the legend in an interestingly believable way that hasn’t been done with Robin Hood in the past. Although there were some parts which were completely changed, i.e. King John’s battlefield death. However there was a brief look into the beginnings of the Magna Carta which was a nice touch. So history aside, the plot was semi-interesting towards the end and was unique for the normal Robin Hood tale. There was a huge amount of cheesy dialogue in this movie however and the plot points felt like a Hollywood formula for a screenplay. Tyrannical king, check. Love story, check. Mistaken identity, check. Secret plot, check. Final epic battle, check. The movie felt like it had about three endings and did really drag on in the beginning.






I did enjoy the cinematography though. Just about any movie with high resolution action filming and a blue filter will get my praise. The action sequences were filmed nicely and the camerawork was great. It was nice to see battle sequences with actual actors instead of 100% CGI. The editing was smooth and effortless. I believe the drag in the movie was due to the plot and not the editing. There were some really nice HD close up shots of the arrows being shot in slow motion which I really enjoyed.






The performances were okay but nothing Oscar worthy. I’m saddened that they made Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy) look so awful in this movie. I think it would have been just as acceptable to have a handsome Sheriff. The cheesy dialogue was not the actors’ fault and they were believable in their characters. The chemistry between Crowe and Blanchett was not there however and felt really forced. They are two really great actors but sometimes that chemistry just can’t be faked.






So overall, I’m on the fence on this one. It seemed to just sit right on the line between decent and bad. The cinematography was nice to look at but that was about it. I think the story and dialogue just wasn’t interesting enough to make this a good movie. The actors did a good enough job, but the movie was just too long and slow in the beginning. I would recommend this to anyone who has a lot of time on their hands with nothing else to do. It was just too slow and uninteresting to warrant two and half hours of someone’s life for me to recommend. “I need help with my chainmail” – Robin Hood.