New Review: Robin Hood

Men in Fights

If I could just have one conversation with Ridley Scott, I would tell him that I still admire and respect his work with total admiration. As proof, I would point out that I have generally been giving favorable reviews to most of his films, even giving a B-plus to Body of Lies even when a majority of the critics tended to trash it. However, I think I'd also have to be blunt in the fact that recently he hasn't been producing the same amount of quality that he had been a generation ago. Even with all that, I still think Scott is capable of producing quality work. That's why it's so disheartening to see that this film is not an example of that theory.

What could be also labeled as "Robin Hood Begins," Russell Crowe has the role of the heroic figure, this time as an examination into the beginnings of the legendary character. In this story, he's Robin Longstride, a soldier in King Richard's Crusade army. When the king winds up dead, his returning crown is intercepted by a double-crossing English knight working with the French, played by Mark Strong. One of the slain nobleman is a Robert Loxley, and Robin takes back his sword to his father (Max von Sydow) and widow Marian (Cate Blanchett). As he takes up residence in the small town, he puts on the facade of being Loxley, married to Marian and helping with the rebellion against the new king, John.

I'll admit that the first hour or so of the film had me. Despite a clunky opening and heavy reminders of Gladiator, I still found a good deal of the action quite engaging, exciting and fun. Here was where Scott managed to show his directing chops in the realm of action quite well, with a lot of good setups and payoffs. There was also a strong showing of many of the supporting players, and while the historical details might have gotten lost in the grand scheme of things, the tradeoff of information with some sly humor gave a promise for a film that might have actually live up to the reputation of its talent.

But then, the movie just stopped caring. No longer does Scott seem like its necessary to have the action scenes be comprehendible and they eventually all bleed into a loud, disorienting mess. Brian Helgeland's script seems to abandon simple elements like plot and characters and decides to just throw a bunch of wild political schemes that go against the thick plot that just developed. Crowe and Blanchett no longer have a sense of playful tension with one another and instead feel like stick figures in the foreground. At these moments, I stopped caring as well, and became incredibly restless and bored with the entire piece, even with the bombastic finale that tries so hard to succeed in vying for your attention.

Russell Crowe was the main reason I was hesitant about embracing this film, but he's actually one of the assets that help it. Yes, he gives one of his trademark hero roles, but it's still nice to see that when committed, he can pull it off. It's just a shame the rest of the film isn't as committed as him. Blanchett also also energy and humor in her role, but the idea of a modernized, feminist Marian feels off with the time period and brass for brass sake. There's a nice round of supporting players from Robin's merry men, the notorious King John (Oscar Issac), that double crossing knight, the original king Richard (Danny Huston), and older players like Sydow and William Hurt as the country's marshall. But when the merry men are underwritten background players, Strong is phoning it in, Issac's John is a wildly contradictive character, Huston's talente is only in a limited role and Sydow and Hurt are also barely given anything at all only serve to remind that this plot is overstuffed with seemingly unlimited disappointment.

Again, I was all in for the first hour of the film: it was fun, enjoyable and intriguing. But I just stopped caring because the movie stopped caring, and despite some good performances and some gorgeous cinematography, Scott lets the weight of the plot and uninteresting action sequences to eventually suffocate the film. I want to continue to pledge my allegiance to Scott, but if he wants to continue to fulfill his Gladiator days, then that's going to be a problem for me to stay with him. That makes me wonder about his Alien prequel, a film I was already resenting, and if it will suffer the same fate as this one.

C+