On paper it makes sense, the crew behind Gladiator re-team
for another ye olde adventure - this time breathing life into one of
the most kick ass characters in all of 13th century English mythology.
He was Batman before there was Batman - so a darker, less camp version
of the man in tights can only be a good thing. Right? Hmmm, not quite!
Chronicling the life of Longstride's rise from expert archer in King
Richard's army against the French, to stealing a name and living the
life of another man (essentially it's a more noble and less creepy
version of The Talented
Mr Ripley), Scott's Robin
Hood takes us through the treacherous world of Kings,
Queens, power and... crippling taxation.
While there are plenty of impressive, expensive looking, and difficult
to organise action sequences - Robin
Hood is, despite it's best intentions, very much a case
of "seen it all before".
It's ironic really, because Ridley Scott is responsible for re-starting
the "Ye Olde Battle Film" genre with Gladiator (which
led to many rip offs like King
Aurthur, Kingdom Of Heaven, Troy, etc) yet now is a
victim of his own unique vision.
We've seen sling-shots and arrows thrown at castles - and yes it makes
for quite entertaining night out at the movies - but ten years on, what
have you got for us that's new?
Not much... possibly less, and a tad longer... it seems.
Put simply, Robin Hood
just isn't as fun, edgy or interesting as the film you
realise (about halfway through) you'd rather be watching... Gladiator.
Despite some genuinely exciting action sequences and excellent
performances from the likes of Crowe (who returns to that 100% "man" that made him a star), Cate Blanchett (as a ballsy Maid
Marion) and serial bad-guy Mark Strong, Scott struggles to keep enough
happening to really keep the audience on the edge of their seat.
Even the final showdown between good and evil (which realistically
should end with the audience internally and externally yelling at the
screen "Got him! Booya Robin! Nice shot!") really lacks the punch of
the swag of films that have come before it.
Don't get me wrong, Robin
Hood is well worth checking out - especially if you can't
get enough of these types of epics.
It's big, it's loud, it
looks great (those shots of the arrows flying and Rusty Crowe bursting
out of the water are a cinematographers wet dream), it tells a
relatively new story, has a forest-load of character development and is genuinely entertaining...
But much like the English weather - it's all a bit "Blah".
You can't blame a man for trying to bring a new angle to a familiar
tale, but sometimes you just have to decide to either have fun and embrace the aspects of the character
we love (like Jon Favreau's take on Iron Man), or get gritty and give the action some unadulterated violent, scary balls (like The Dark Knight).
But perhaps Robin Hood is the turning point we need in order to forget about "Reboots" and "Origin Stories" all together and
just present decent visions of the characters we've all paid to see...
without all the plot heavy backstory. DVD Special Features
The movie cost well over $210M to make, with another $100M to
market. Yet while the film managed to pull in a healthy $310M
worldwide, it's still regarded as one of the biggest flops of the year.
That could have something to do with the let-down of the quality of the
film itself, not simply the cash flow.
Never the less, this is bound to make some money back on DVD, hence a hefty number of Special Features.
Included here is the Director's Cut featuring 16 extra minutes not
seen in cinemas (yep, that's just what we need - THE MOVIE TO GO
LONGER!), there are also Deleted Scenes (scenes not good enough to make
the already long 2 hour running time... how bad were they, why would I
want to watch them?) as well as an introduction and Commentary by
Editor Pietro Scalia.
There is also a bunch of featurettes
including "Rise and Rise Again : Making Ridley Scott's Robin Hood" and
an enormous Marketing Archive (which is excellent viewing for a
marketing nerd like myself). This is DVD-Rent worthy at best...
Conclusion:
Movie 60% Extras: 75%
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