Robin Hood Reviews

''Rise, and rise again. Until lambs become lions.''

The story of an archer in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion who fights against the Norman invaders and becomes the legendary hero known as Robin Hood.

Russell Crowe: Robin Longstride

Cate Blanchett: Marion Loxley

Ridley Scott is a master when it comes to film making and visionary realization. Just look at his sci-fi legacies Blade Runner and Alien as a beginning to a long resume of fine creations. Ridley over time moved away from Science Fiction to sate lavish interest with history and real time, capturing epic grandeur with artistic means.
His best work would have to be Gladiator, while Black Hawk Down, Body of Lies and the robotic Kingdom Of Heaven show Ridley can still make a good film, although perhaps consistency remains in question.
Robin Hood proves what a charismatic cast can achieve and a solid screenplay that equals cleverness can conjure.
Ridley weaves the whole picture majestically well, essentially bringing to life a legendary character in a light never seen before in any previous films or literal manifestations.



What would I say I find most rewarding from Robin Hood? For a start, it has a believable humour and resonance about it. The cast have a sombre English feel, with accents that match, Russel Crowe & Cate Blanchett are essentially not Oscar Winners for nothing. They embody their roles with believability and credibility that has us rooting for them, feeling in a sense what they experience. It's very clever of Ridley Scott to choose such wonderful actresses and actors and bring the best out of them.
Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac and a short appearance from Danny Huston all grace the screen and add performances with the valour, battles and drama that ensues.
Who can also forget Robin's friends? Little John, Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck. They definitely add laughs, empathy and sensuality audiences can warm to. If Kingdom of Heaven lacked one thing, it lacked this, soul and depth. This is not robotic, this is very human thus we have fun and enjoy the ride.

Robin Hood is perhaps not what mainstream viewers would predict envisioning. This isn't a story about Robin Hood hiding out in the forest, helping the poor and fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham; This is an origin tale, a sort of prequel.
Robin is returning from the crusades with a king whom has followed his ambitions and religious conquests in Jerusalem. The Country thus has been bled dry by the expenses of such a campaign. When Robin ends up accidentally taking the identity of another, after the Lionheart King is killed by a French cook's arrow, we see a chain of events unfold that are fantastical and vast.
Is Robin Hood historically accurate? Not quite. Is it the closest, grittiest envisioning ever to grace the screen? I'd say it comes very close. What the film results in being is an artful epic that has the battle scenes, it has the character interactions, the costumes, the locations, and the setting up for another great successor; A sequel.

Ultimately, the film has it's strengths and weaknesses. The constant location jumping at times defies belief and perhaps the lengthy time the film endures will not be appreciated with mass audiences.
Robin Hood owes a great deal not just to Ridley but to Brian Helgeland's screenplay and story set up, which works wonders when put into effect.
The last battle scene however does have me raising questions over whether Ridley has been watching Saving Private Ryan, with French Boats opening in a way that I never recollected for that day and age. The more puzzling realizations are whether Nottingham and the distance to Mid-Lands coasts are essentially where the French attacked, are also confounding. Why attack in these distant regions?
Puzzlement aside, Robin Hood was admittedly very enjoyable, very different, and extremely lavish. It takes a brave film maker to pull of such a task and to even tackle a legendary character such as Robin Hood but Ridley Scott does it. He makes his own brand and mark upon this legend, and the research, sweat and tears that went into this film's making shows. It's a labour of love from Ridley; A man whom sometimes mixes artistic license with his own vision and scope regarding history.

Thanks Ridley, we are entertained yet again. Now, can you be a good boy and get on with adapting Brave New World for the big screen please?

''If you're building for the future, you need to keep your foundations strong, laws of the land enslave the people to a king who demands loyalty but offers nothing in return, I've been to the South of France, Palestine and back, you build a kingdom the same way you build a cathedral from the ground up!''

much better than I thought it would be. I suspected that Russel and Cate wouldn't be part of bad movie.
really nice perspective of the legen story.

This is now the 12th film adaptation on the heroic high-skilled archer and swordsman known as Robin Hood. Because of the large amount of films made based on him would have made an effect on critics and fans expectations and overall opinions of the 2010 version. I guaranteed that Robin Hood was going to be either as amazing as Gladiator, as good as King Arthur or as shit as Kingdom Of Heaven but it turned out better than King Arthur but nowhere near as good as Gladiator! I think the main flaws were that it did not really feel like a Robin Hood story and it was incredibly slow. It wasn't very epic either like the trailer demonstrated.


Robin Hood is set in late 12th Century England. Robin Longstride is a common archer in the Third Crusade. Following the death of Richard the Lionheart in battle, Robin and three other common soldiers (aka Merry Men) attempt to return to their homeland, having spent ten years fighting abroad. Along the way they come across an ambush of the King's guard by Sir Godfrey, an English Knight with French lineage and allegiance. When King Richard dies, his younger brother John is crowned king. Russell Crowe collaborates for a fifth time with Ridley Scott as Robin. After seeing a couple of still pictures and trailers, I was thinking that there might be a second Maximus on our hands or "Maximus back from the dead" so to speak. It was a good thing that they were different but seeing Crowe as the heroic Robin as a leader during a battle, it bought back old memories of Maximus in Gladiator. Sienna Miller was originally playing Lady Marion but Cate Blanchett took over. To be honest, I am glad that she took over because Marion is the love interest of Robin and it would look better seeing as she is almost the same age as Russell Crowe. Mark Strong is becoming a real Hollywood star as of late starring in a lot of fantastic films such as Stardust, Sherlock Holmes and Kick-Ass. Robin Hood is another fantastic film with him in and now I am beginning to see him as a villain. If he ever plays a heroic character, I would find it quite lame seeing as he is more of the villain type.


Ridley Scott crafts together his third historic epic. His first one was a giant success (Gladiator) and the next one was a real disappointment (Kingdom Of Heaven) but Robin Hood, on the other hand, was a success but doesn't quite live up to Gladiator. This time, 10 years ago, Gladiator was released and Ridley Scott tries to make Robin Hood like "the Gladiator of the 2010s" with obviously a historic plot but with similar production settings, music and costumes. Most of the filming was in Wales for the action scenes but the castles and fields were mostly in Surrey. I think this would've really failed if it was directed by a non-English director or if it wasn't filmed in the UK. Great that it was filmed in Wales as well as England. The script had to be rewritten seeing as Ridley Scott didn't approve of it and that delayed filming even further. I did think the script was pretty good. Quite soppy in some moments but apart from that, awesome!


Overall, Robin Hood is a fairly decent Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe collaboration but did have its disappointments. It is more like King Arthur. Both of them can do so much better!