Robin Hood has had his fair share of adventures on the silver screen, and at least three of them left an impression on me. Starting with the Disney animated tale of a Fox and his Jungle Book sidekick, to the Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves, and finally the musical styling of Men in Tights. Now a new version of Robin Hood arrives in theatres this weekend. So is it a tale worth telling again? Well this is not the same Robin Hood of legend we are familiar with.
Robin Hood stars Russel Crowe as the title character, and follows the origin of the famous thief. Starting with his time as a Crusader and ending with him declare an outlaw. However the problem with this is that it presents itself almost as historic fact rather than lore. The plot is not very gripping or even interesting, and could have been any other tale without the Robin Hood mythos shoe horned in. It's as if the story was meant for an entirely different movie, but the names of the characters were changed to Robin Hood, Marian, Little John, and Friar Tuck.
The cast all perform well, but none really owned their role to stand out above the rest. Cate Blanchett is an acceptable Marian, but I have a problem with one part of the movie that involves Marian donning a suit of armor and charging into battle. I have nothing against strong female characters, and Blanchett had done a great job of presenting a strong willed Marian up to that point. Having her in chain mail and swinging a sword was entirely unnecessary.
This may not be your typical Robin Hood tale, but don't expect any surprises. It follows the same formula of many films before it, and you may feel as though you have already seen it. Robin Hood is average in nearly every aspect.
Final Score: C+
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