Movie Review: Robin Hood - Ridley Scott's Robin Hood

Movie: Robin Hood 2010
Starring: Rusell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong
Director: Ridley Scott

Director Ridley Scott sets his ambitions high by trying to retell the legend of Robin Hood in a fresh and more realistic manner than past films. With a top-notch cast that includes Rusell Crowe and Cate Blanchett my expectations were pretty high going into this film. I mean this is the same pair that created Gladiator together right? Sadly, despite there best efforts a weak script and bad pacing keeps Robin Hood from truly being the epic film it was intended to be. Ridley Scott starts us off at the beginning when Robin Longstride (Rusell Crowe) is returning from the crusades, a war that in the end he regrets being involved in. Richard The Lionheart is killed on their return leaving the Kingdom to the envious and spiteful Prince John. A promise to fallen knight Sir Robert Loxley leads Robin back to his home town of Nottingham. Whereupon he finds Loxley's widow Maid Marion (Cate Blanchett) and learns of his past. He is drawn into a battle to protect Nottingham and England itself from Prince John and the traitor Godfrey (Mark Strong).


The movie starts off quickly establishing all the major characters and setting up the conflict to come. Upon Robin's return to Nottingham however the movie begins to slow down and drags at times. This time is used to show the chemistry between Robin and Maid Marrion played by Cate Blanchett as a strong and independent woman. Which is done well, although not incredibly romantic they do seem to have some chemistry together on screen. Another part I liked was the relationship between Robin and Sir Walter Loxely who takes him in and treats him almost as his own son. The pacing though makes these scenes feel disconnected from the larger story of the fate of Nottingham and England. The movie fails to really build any conflict or tension in the main story. For example Godfrey the main villain and Robin share about two scenes together one in the beginning of the film and one at the end. So their conflict is never more than impersonal.  Which is a shame because Mark Strong is very adept at playing the role of the villain. The movie comes to it's climax out of nowhere instead of by natural events. The battle scenes are directed well as would be expected but are few and far between. Those expecting an action packed movie will be disappointed.

In the end this Robin Hood misses the mark leaving the audience wondering what could have been. With all this talent this could have been a truly great film. Instead what we have is a movie suitable for a DVD rental to pass the time. Enjoyable but not extremely engaging. Entertaining but not edge of your seat excitement. A good enough film but not epic. You can buy Robin Hood on DVD or Blu-ray at our DVD shop.