Robin Hood review

ROBIN HOOD:

ROBS FROM ITS BELOVED SOURCE MATERIAL AND GIVES A DISASTROUS RETELLING!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: * out of 4

SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT

Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, and Jamie Dornan in Robin Hood

            Taron Egerton (Kingsman 1 and 2, Eddie the Eagle, Sing) dons the hood in the latest retelling of the classic story of thief turned hero, Robin Hood. There have been several film adaptations of Robin Hood over the years, most notably the animated one from Disney and Mel Brooks’ outrageous spoof, Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

            From Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott’s version released in 2010, it seems like Robin Hood’s legend isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Aaaaand then director, Otto Bathurst (Criminal Justice, Five Days, Black Mirror) got a hold of the story and gave us this new adaptation of Robin Hood.

            Part of me was interested in the movie when I saw the trailers, you got Taron Egerton, who has already proven to be an undeniable talent in several other projects, portraying the lead plus Jamie Foxx (Collateral, Django Unchained, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as “Little” John. But at the same time, I was skeptical because didn’t Ridley Scott give us a Robin Hood film adaptation not too long ago, why do we need another one right now?

            So, I got a ticket and gave the movie a watch, and I’ll be honest, it completely surpassed my expectations. Robin Hood (2018) is so misdirected and poorly handled that it’s a comedy, from its dreadfully cluttered action sequences to its performances that range from passable at best to over-the-top laughably bad, it’s like the Robin Hood equivalent of Batman & Robin.

            This can go down in history with other 2018 releases like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Venom as one of the all-time greatest, unintentional comedic failures. Not once was I invested in the story and characters nor was I ever able to take it seriously.

            The film follows Robin of Loxley (Egerton), who after returning home to England from fighting in the Crusades, befriends an Arab fighter he came across during battle named Little John (Foxx). In hopes to bring down England’s corrupt royal crown, Robin is trained by Little John to become a thief and steal the riches of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn-The Dark Knight Rises, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Ready Player One) and give to the poor and starving villagers in the mines.

            With the help of Robin’s love interest, Marian (Eve Hewson-This Must Be the Place, The Knicks, Bridge of Spies), Robin and Little John must do battle with the corrupt Sheriff, bring down this hostile rule, and become a hero.

            The film also stars Tim Minchin (Two Fists, One Heart, Californication, Squinters) as Friar Tuck, Jamie Dornan (Marie Antoinette, Once Upon a Time, Fifty Shades trilogy) as Will “Scarlet” Tillman, F. Murray Abraham (All the President’s Men, Scarface, The Grand Budapest Hotel) as the Cardinal, Paul Anderson (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Revenant) as Guy of Gisborne, Josh Herdman (Harry Potter franchise, UGetMe, Marcella) as Righteous, Cornelius Booth (Trauma, Pride & Prejudice, Penelope) as Lord Pembroke, and Bjorn Bengtsson (2003, Offside, The Last Kingdom) as Tydon.

            Overall, Robin Hood should be one of those bad movies that gets me angry to my boiling point and start ranting about how awful it was, and yet, I found it to be a delightful and entertaining failure. Don’t get me wrong, there were aspects that annoyed the hell out of me, but most of the time I was laughing at how over-the-top and stupid it was.

            Out of all the Robin Hood film adaptations I’ve seen, this is by far the worst one, it’s a hilarious textbook example of how NOT to do a Robin Hood movie, that’s right the versions starring Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe are better than this disaster. As a matter of fact, it’s such a huge mess that Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a Mel Brooks directed parody of Robin Hood is a more faithful version of the story than this, and we were laughing intentionally with that one.

            The action sequences are atrocious, every one of them is filmed too close, they’re always cluttered, and there’s unnecessary uses of slow-motion everywhere. It’s almost like someone took Zack Snyder’s battle sequences from 300 and reshot them with the camera operator from the Michael Bay Transformers movies.

            Despite Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx both being very talented leads in the past, the protagonist characters are passable at best, Egerton is basically just recycling his Eggsy character from Kingsman and Foxx portraying a badass fighter who has a hard time picking an accent and sticking to it, they’re not terrible but I don’t see myself praising them either. Ben Mendelsohn is the one who steals the show as the villain in a very similar way Dennis Hopper was the highlight of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie.

            Mendelsohn has already proven that he is capable of portraying over-the-top villains in Rogue One and Ready Player One, and here it’s literally like he decided not to act today and do whatever he wanted. From the way he delivers his lines to just his presence in general, I got some huge laughs out of him and it’s even funnier than I was supposed to take him seriously, this is what happens when the studio behind Twilight adapts Robin Hood, laughter at the studio’s expense.

            I almost recommend Robin Hood (2018) as a “So bad it’s good” kind of movie, it’s horribly misguided and features some of the worst editing, plot structure, and action sequences I’ve seen in a very long time, to the point where it was funny. If you want something to watch and make fun of with your friends and a few drinks, this is the unintentional comedy hit of the year.

            But as a Robin Hood adaptation, you’re better off watching one of the many other versions that came before this tragedy. Did I mention, this Robin Hood got arrowed in the chest by a Mel Brooks parody movie? I’ll just leave it at that, a unique failure.