![]() ![]() ![]() If that's not typecasting, I'm unsure what is. The real bad guy in this movie is Godfrey, and we know he's rotten to the core because he's being played by Mark Strong, who has recently donned a black hat in as such diverse offerings as The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, and Kick-Ass. In addition to Robin and "Maid" Marion, we meet Friar Tuck (Mark Addy), a bee-keeping priest who cares more about equality on Earth than being rewarded in the afterlife Robin's companions-in-arms from King Richard's Crusade, Little John (Kevin Durand) and Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes) and various other "Merry Men." The traditional Robin Hood villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen), is present, but his role is small and he's presented as silly and ineffectual. Most of the recognizable characters of Robin Hood lore are present. He and Robin become enemies and Godfrey's strike against Nottingham, where Robin has established an identity as the son of Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow) and the wife of Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett), is fueled primarily by revenge rather than as a means to improve the odds of a successful French invasion of England. Since Godfrey is actually working for the King of France, he is more interested in fomenting civil unrest than filling John's coffers, so he acts in ruthless, unprincipled ways. ![]() His chief goal is generating revenue, so he appoints the French double-agent Godfrey (Mark Strong) as his primary tax collector. John proves to be a less able ruler than his brother. When the king is killed while assaulting a French castle, Robin and his cohorts obtain the crown and return it to London so the next ruler, Prince John (Oscar Isaac), can wear it. ![]() The movie starts with Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) as one of the most accurate and honest archers in the army of King Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston). Robin Hood functions as a prequel of sorts to the more common Robin Hood movies, making it the cinematic equivalent of a superhero origin story. ( Kingdom of Heaven provided a perfect opportunity to compare the director's intended cut with the studio-mandated trim.) One has to wonder whether Scott's original vision of Robin Hood was more adult and fully-formed than the theatrical version. The result is choppy and there's a sense that a lot - perhaps too much - resides on the cutting room floor. The 140-minute running length, although long for a "normal" motion picture, is skinny for a would-be epic and was likely achieved only after significant edits to the original cut. The PG-13 rating (mandatory for maximizing audience size) disallows any serious bloodletting or sexuality, and this makes much of Robin Hood seem almost cartoonish. There are numerous reasons why the film doesn't work as effectively as it might but the principal two likely have more to do with the financial realities of modern-day filmmaking than with inherent flaws in the material. Unfortunately, the result is more like the warmed-up leftovers of Braveheart than a new approach to an old tale. By cherry-picking fact and fiction (considerably more of the latter than the former), Scott crafts a different milieu than what one typically associates with the hero of Sherwood Forest. Scott's Robin Hood is a cobbling together of various elements from the many myths and legends about the revered outlaw. Can their involvement re-invigorate the narrative and make this Robin Hood more than an unnecessary placeholder between Iron Man 2 and Shrek Forever After? Sadly, it's difficult to answer that in the affirmative. Although the material may, like many stories that have become overly familiar through repetition, be more inclined to provoke a yawn than a surge of excitement, the participation of director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe at least inspires intrigue. The most recent big-budget take, Kevin Reynolds' critically-panned blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (starring a woefully miscast Kevin Costner), arrived in theaters 19 summers ago, so one could argue it's time to provide the current generation with their own version. If nothing else, that's a testimony to the legend's enduring popularity. The tale of Robin Hood is one of several dozen Hollywood staples that experiences re-makes or re-interpretations on a regular basis by the motion picture industry. ![]()
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