I think I'm starting to realize how full of shit most critics are. I used to swear by rottentomatoes, but lately I could disagree more. Robin Hood was the latest example. It was #8 on my top 10 of 2010 and I was actually a bit turned off seeing all the bad reviews. Lots of stories are coming out about the inflated budget (some reporting as high as $237 mil) and extensive development issues. The initial script entitled Nottingham, which was about the Sheriff investigating a supposed terrorist (who is of course Robin Hood), went through about 5 or 6 rewrites. There was one version that put a Fight Club/split personality on Robin Hood, which probably would have been horrid, but estimates are putting script prices alone around $7 million. Well after a long and expensive ass production, Robin Hood was finally here.
I was very pleasantly surprised. It was quite obviously an origin story and set itself up as the predecessor to all the Robin Hood films we've seen. The acting all around was superb. Mark Strong was great as the french bad guy and Oscar Isaac played a FANTASTIC King John. King John was an absolute prick the entire movie and it was great. He was a selfish, money/attention/power hungry psycho and it would have been great to see more of him in this movie. Russell Crowe was good as Robin Hood. I don't think
he really 'looked' the part, and while they may be a bit shallow, it took a bit away from the character. It was a radically different Robin Hood than we've ever seen before, but I just had a hard time buying Russell Crowe for the role. His acting was great, but with a character like this look has a lot to do with it. This was more a warrior type Robin Hood than the classic ranger and I guess that's why Crowe got the part. Anyways, it's a minor issue and overall I thought the acting was fantastic.
The felt very torn about the story. It had some really great elements to it. The political undertone of King John's atrocious treatment of the people was a rather big portion of the second half, but it would have been good to see it as a main storyline. You had to know that he was going to go back on his word on the end and it fit the story/character perfectly. There were other elements that were a bit unnecessary. The entire storyline with Robin Hood's father was pointless. There really was no reason for him to not know about his past and it felt like it only existed to fill up screen time. It was lumped in with his posturing as Robert Loxley and together it just felt rather inessential. The dialogue was a bit all over the place too. There were times when it tried too hard to be epic with lines like "Are you ready to be who you are?" and "Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions". They really didn't work and felt really overstated. Conversely, there were a few genuinely funny moments and the interactions between the characters seemed very real.
The only problems I had were the underdevelopment of some elements. Maybe because they were trying to squeeze a lot into it, but there was a lot they could have gone deeper into. Robin's posse for the most part were glazed over for larger roles like Lady Marion, who felt a bit unnecessary. The romantic angle was forced and honestly could have been taken out completely. That being said, I absolutely loved the second half of this film. The faux "coming together" of England just long enough to fend off the French was great. For a while I thought they were going to pussy out and make an 'everything's ok' ending, but they didn't. The tail end with Robin & the Merry Men was kind of forced and went against the naturally gloomy ending. The first half was a bit long and plodding. I would have rather seen them develop elements in the second half. Overall, it was still a really cool movie that could have been absolutely amazing. While it fell short, it certainly wasn't as bad as critics are saying.
Bottom line: Robin Hood brings a radically different take on an old character and while not narratively perfect, some great story elements and an incredibly strong 2nd half makes it much better than some are saying.
Overall score: 7 out of 10
0 comments:
Post a Comment