Robin Hood 2010

In this re-teaming of Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe come a grim and
gritty adaption of the legendary character of Robin Hood. Now personally
I know of the story much like pretty much everyone else
I have never read the "original" story it was always through various media
that I learned of the character hand the world he inhabited being real or not.
I grew up with the Animated Disney film and then in the 90s was wow by the
amazing Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which of course stared Kevin Costner.
I personally think Prince of Thieves is the definitive version of Robin Hood,
some might disagree but that is what I think anyway so when I first started
seeing the trailers for this new Robin Hood I wasn't really speak to me and
I usually like these types of movies but it didn't click so I said pass when
it hit theaters. So I had the chance to view it recently on video and I would
have to say I was not very pleased.
Now I don't know if this film was based on the original story or not
but Robin Hood to me has always been a light hearted character Grizzled
hardened ex-military who just really cared only about money and sometimes
the well fair of the men under his command. Also he is Not Robin of Locksley
(or Loxley as the case may be) in this he is Robin Longstride who somewhat
becomes a "Loxley" later on in the film. That is one thing I felt was different
all the names especially the last names are different in this version for the story
Now the title cards at the begin where it gives a bit of background before
the movie begins was a interesting thing. One of the things that I thought
was cool was the scene at the beginning of the film where the the woman
(who apparently turns out to be Marion) makes a pretty good shot with a
arrow to scare off some intruders from her property.
The film itself had some good points such as the production design was
quite impressive and the cinematography was very good there were some
very nice shots in this both scenery wise and action wise.
also the action was very good as well it was fast paced at times and very
hard hitting, But that also didn't work in the films favor as well the pacing
I found in the first hour I didn't know what the hell was going on? its like I
was all what are they doing? who is this guy? what the hell are talking about?
it wasn't until the actual second hour (the films run time is 2 and a half hours)
when Robin and company arrive in Nottingham that the movie even
seemed enjoyable and moved a bit more slowly in pace where you could
grasp what is going on. Another aspect of of the film is I didn't find anyone
really recognizable other then Friar Tuck I couldn't tell who was who until
someone said this is "such and such" and you have that "oh..ok?" type of
moment like for example I noticed Kevin Durand (who played Fred Dukes / Blob in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine) was in this and and he seemed to be Robin's right
hand man and Robin referred to him as John a few times so I said "I assume
this is Little John then" another thing was the dwellers of "Sherwood Forest"
are just kids kind of like the "Lost boys" from Peter Pan. Now some would say
that my complaints are invalid becasue this is the beginning of the story nothing
has reached that familiar point yet. Which is true and the end of the movie is where
it is most familiar you can see the I guess you would say the journey of the Hero
when Robin of the Hood as he is referred to in this goes from being this somewhat
hardened self centered person to someone who has compassion and is willing to
stand up and fight for the people that can't fight for themselves it is in a way
kind of like Batman Begins crossed with Braveheart.
In the end I felt like I didn't really enjoy this movie as much as I should have
like I said it wasn't really enjoyable until the I'd say second half also like I
said Robin Hood is always seemed more light hearted to me where he relied
more on being smart and crafty where this one
seems to be more about being able to punch harder and out fight everyone.
I'm sad to say I'm happy I didn't waste the money to see this in the theater.
but also it did have a very neat closing credits where it had this animation effect
that looked like an animated oil painting. that was pretty cool.