Robin Hood Movie Review (2010)

A historical epic about the origins of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Hood is visually beautiful, with strong production design, though the story feels convoluted and not all that interesting.

I remember watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in the movie theater when it was released in 1991. Despite Kevin Costner’s American-accented Robin, who spoke with a British accent about 4 times total, I liked it. The Robin Hood story is great, Morgan Freeman is the man, and Alan Rickman stole the movie. Good times. But, other than Monty Python and Men In Tights, I haven’t seen another version, so I dove into this.

Robin Hood centers around Robin Longstride, an archer in the army of King Richard the Lionheart. When he is killed, Robin and a few friends desert the rest of the troops and come upon another battle, including a knight named Sir Robert of Locksley. This man dies, asking Robin to bring his sword back to his father. Robin agrees and goes to Locksley, where he meets the man’s father and his widow, Marian, and, at the father’s request, begins living at the home with them as the returned son. There is also a new king, a bunch of other men who want power or to kill other people, and a lot of discussion about taxes.

Visually, this epic drama is lovely. You can clearly see where the budget went on the screen, in historical clothing, ships, horses, decorated castle rooms, cloaks, armor, and various other items that turn all the sets and costumes into a vivid experience for the viewer. This is by far the best part of the film.

There are some big names in Robin Hood, including Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins, and Max von Sydow, and they do what they can, even though Crowe very much emulates Maximus from Gladiator and you see whispers of Daisy from The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button from Blanchett. Neither is a distraction, but, as likable as any of these faces are, they keep the film mostly neutral.

This film is far longer than it should be as well. A lot of things happen, and I’m not sure I can tell you now what they were. There are large battle scenes and quiet family-like scenes, with a Robin who doesn’t know where he came from searching for those answers.

I tried to stay up on the narrative, but as I said, there is a lot going on and a lot of people involved. Early in the film, I figured all of this would come together in a way where I could fully sort out who was who and why they were doing what they did, but that didn’t happen – either because they weren’t good at explaining it or because I didn’t care enough to figure it out – or both.

**SPOILER ALERT**
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But the one thing that I will remember about this movie – the lasting thing – is that Blanchett’s Maid Marian secretly went into battle with the men. She flips her helmet up to reveal her face, and I actually laughed out loud. Her character is a very “independent, female strength” picture of Marian, but this was actually funny. I’m sorry, Marian, this is not Lord Of The Rings. You are not Éowyn, so stop trying to steal her thunder. It actually irked me because – do something new. This choice has been taken, don’t go to holy territory because it will look and feel exactly like it did.
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**END SPOILER**

Robin Hood is fine, but forgettable. I like the story of Robin Hood, and I was looking forward to seeing how this played out, but they lost me pretty quickly. It is beautiful, but boring, over-stuffed, and underwhelming. Not something that I recommend you bother with.

Runtime: 140 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: PG-13

Languages Spoken In The Film: English and French with English subtitles

Should You Watch It? No

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 2/5 Stars

Available: Free on Max and Hulu, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms