Robin Hood (2010)

Holy snap, I love Robin Hood! When I heard about this movie a while back, I was pretty psyched to see some robbing…with hoods. So one could understand how shocked I was when I saw the previews for Ridley Scott’s 2010 version. Featuring no robbing, and very few hoods, are two big mistakes one can make when making a “Robin Hood” movie. I must also note that I’m really tired of that bland, generic, filter they’re putting over medieval movies to make them look darker. In fact, that’s this movie’s biggest issue. It’s very, very, generic.

As for the plot…the whole thing was painted so bland I really don’t remember too many details story wise. The best I can gather is that this all takes place before the events of the story that we know as Robin Hood. Several historical people, whose names I cannot remember do to poor pacing, are having themselves a war. Robin and friends are recruited to fight, and upon returning, tells the king what he thinks about him. The king breaks his promise not to persecute anyone for the opinions shared at that time, and Robin and his friends are taken captive. (Big surprise) Robin then spends the rest of the movie showing the people the king is a very bad guy, and that their political system is not all that hot.

There’s also some hints that Robin’s father designed the democratic system and some other random bits that all end when the higher ups (the king and his men) eventually decide that Robin has been a very bad man, and is labeled an outlaw.

Because of this declaration, during the last ten minutes of the movie, there is a fight, some arrows, and it finally started acting like a Robin Hood movie instead of a high budget history channel special.

The only character that was even remotely interesting was Marian, if not for the fact that she seemed just a bit more realistic then your typical “Maid Marian” character. She’s cold towards Robin for the first half of the movie, but warms up to him after he shows her how “politically impressive” he can be. Seems like a weird thing to get off on, but whatever. The whole movie was apparently rewritten several times. The first time as Robin and the sheriff in swapped good and evil roles, the second time, as Robin and the sheriff as the same person, then rewritten so that Robin becomes the sheriff…then they must have gotten tired of trying to be creative and opted for historical accuracy.