Written by Tom Moore
The story of Robin Hood is probably one of the oldest, and most classic tales told to us as kids. He’s a man who uses a bow and arrow, wears a green outfit, and steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Now, when you think about it, the Robin Hood story could be looked at as one of the oldest superhero stories—especially considering he’s the inspiration for the Green Arrow.
But, of course, producers like to make money and why not try to cash in on superhero trends with another rendition of a classic tale? That’s clearly what happened with Robin Hood as it tries to be something that it clearly doesn’t understand.
Starring everyone’s favorite Kingsman, Taron Egerton as Robin Hood, the film follows the usual story. Robin has issues with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelson) after being sent to war and kicked out of his estate.Then, of course, he meets John (Jamie Fox) who aides Robin in becoming both a better archer and a better thief.In this edition, Robin also has a love interest, Marion (Eve Hewson), and her friend/boyfriend Will (Jamie Dornan), who basically just help the poor get by before Hood comes around.
To start on a positive note, Egerton and Mendelson’s dynamic is probably the best thing this movie has to offer. Mendelson really helps the lackluster lines he’s given with a charmingly evil performance as the Sheriff and Egerton still shows that he’s a relatively likable actor. However, even their decent performances could steal attention away from the boring and uninspiring script. For a film about a character that truly inspires people to be good, it lacks anything to inspire anyone to remotely care.
Not to mention, a lot of the side characters are very little seen or used.Hewson is basically your typical damsel in distress, who is only there to kiss Robin Hood and pretend to be anything important to the story. Dornan is supposed to be there just so someone else can oppose Hood’s philosophy. Everyone else is basically just comic relief that misses almost every single time.
Frankly, the worst part of Robin Hood is that it probably thinks it’s another great superhero tale and it actually doesn’t understand anything that makes the genre great. It thinks what makes a great superhero story is a generic hero’s tale filled with a training montage, excessive moments of slow motion, a truly tiring score, a villain that is evil for the sake of being evil, and a hero that is likable because he does good things. Really, the genre is none of this and if the filmmakers took more notice and care with the story as a whole, it had the chance to be at least something decent.There’s nothing complex or unique and it is just full of tiring tropes.
It’s doesn’t even understand how to effectively build its world and many will leave with more questions than answers. Why does the Sheriff dislike Robin and decide to sell his estate? If John was Arab and Nottingham hated the Arabs as much as the film says, wouldn’t he be shot on sight in Nottingham? Wouldn’t Robin be given dirty looks being seen with John or at least be questioned why he would be seen with an Arab? All of these questions, only to be answered with a line from the opening narration: “Forget everything you’ve heard before.”
Yes, that’s right, the film even asks its viewers to forget what they already know about Robin Hood, so that way they can just retell the story again to pretend that it’s fresh. If that doesn’t show how much of a cash grab Robin Hood really is, I don’t know what will. It’s frankly disappointing to see and doesn’t even care to make audiences react to it in any other way except a loud, guttural sigh of disgust. For a film about stealing for justice and what is right, it’s a true injustice to a classic story and just steals money from its viewers’ wallets.
Rating: 2/10
