Robin Hood (2018) – Film Review

Duh, silly Evan… It just occurred to me the other night, while taking my notes, that this is one of those instances where I have to put the parenthetical release year in the title. Like every generation now, it seems, has their Grinch and A Christmas Carol, so, too, do we have a new Robin Hood film…piece…movie? Ugh, this will prove more difficult to write than I thought…

We’re well into that pre-Christmas slump where everything that comes out is either extremely-busy (and, thus, I don’t have the time, nor the patience, to sit through it—why I’m now reviewing the new Grinch around Christmastime, instead), is seen-it-already leftovers from the “fall fun” slate—your Halloween’s, your Venom’s—or money-grubbing tosh the studios fart out at the last conceivable fiscal seconds before the clocks…and their bankrolls…reset in the New Year. This is where we usually have a lot of our Oscar contenders, in the nigh-Christmas/post-January 1st zone. Not that I’ll be watching that caravan of garbage this year (shout-out to Mr. Sunday Movies), but I do wish this most wonderful time of the year had a little bit more to offer us cinephiles.

All these reasons are why my review slate has been so dry, lately: The pre-holiday influx sucks the life and passion out of me, ironic and clichéd though that may be. Either I’m overworked at the theatre, and come home too tired to even think of going back for entertainment purposes—much as I love it there—or I’m simply not up for being disappointed and then having to write a thorough review of why I’m so disappointed.

Now that my inner Scrooge has aired his grievances, let’s get to the review, shall we?

From the top…

I didn’t expect anything huge with Robin Hood. From the trailers, it looked like an action-adventure flick, in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean—the good three, anyway; even the trailer had a Hans Zimmer-esque scoring to it. Following the ho-ho-headache-inducing start to the season, I just wanted to unwind, escape into thoughtless cinema and not think about much more than the little nuances and intricacies I’d note in the review, later on. Well, there’s no nuance to speak of, and while the intricacies may be few and far between, there is an…endearing quality about this new take on Hood that a stupid part of me can appreciate.

The Missus and I have been watching the old, black-and-white, Richard Greene rendition on our Roku TV for a couple weeks now. However, I’ve had the bug for Taron Egerton (the upcoming Rocketman, the Kingsman franchise) as the Hood long before that.

He’s become a close, personal favorite “new” actor of mine—first introduced to me in Kingsman, and reaffirmed by his blindsiding vocal talent in Sing! (see my Weekly on that for more)—and I’m glad he’s getting decent work. As I said, he’s playing a young Elton John in the Bohemian Rhapsody-style biopic, releasing in January, and is versatile and multi-talented. He, if nothing else, drew me to and kept me attached to this piece. Jamie Foxx is also great, and a neat twist on the Little John character. Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Ready Player One) plays his usual growly villain character as the Sheriff of Nottingham, but he does it so well and so passionately every time that I can’t help but like him. Other folks, sadly—like Tim Minchin (Californication), and Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies, Enough Said)—aren’t used enough or to their strengths, but I’ll get to that in a bit. I came here for archery lessons—I mean, to watch yet another talented actor shoot a bow angrily at tyrannical authority figures—and, in hat, we actually see a nice little (if not heavy-handed) socio-political commentary. Leanings, aside, I appreciate this new, reflective take on the Hood story; it fits, and I’m not going to deny the filmmakers’ sure intent with wanting to steer the property in that direction for this new iteration.

Some telling CGI pulled me out of it a bit. I can’t imagine the bankroll for this was too awfully high, with most of that probably going towards getting the big names for the poster’s sake. The costuming seemed wishy-washy, like the lead had just come off a weeks-long binge of the Dishonored games, and had shown up for work in a patched-together duster coat, cog-adorned top-hat, and welder’s goggles with “new ideas” on how medieval dress went.

The sets are cool, very elaborate—even tight-spaced, at times, giving that sense of peril to the action therein—but the way it was shot… Jarring is an understatement. The action bits, especially, are confusing, and I’d even go as far as to call them vomit-inducing. To a guy who put down half a (small) bag of popcorn, a concessions-sized box of Milk Duds, and was well into his Cherry Coke before the halfway mark, I had to blink out a lot of my dazed state before continuing to enjoy the piece. It’s like the editor had a nervous tick or something; the action scenes are all over the place, like they were shooting a kung-fu film. Oh, and the over-use of slo-mo—not a fan, and this is coming from someone with an undying devotion to the I-can’t-believe-it’s-still-going Transformers franchise.

The ending definitely sets it up for a sequel, but with implications that are equal parts off-putting and intriguing. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing another movie set in this world, either; much complaining as I do here, I’m not one to deny a shameless continuation of a story I’ve a soft spot for (also, unrelated note: Watch for my Bumblebee review, out December 8th weekend). Hood, little as I know of classical English literature, is one of those timeless tales, and one that’s been adapted into many a divergent story—your V for Vendetta’s and Men In Tights’s.

I missed the first 10 or 15 minutes—no trailer pack was included with this advance screening—but, we all know the story. Good pacing, only dragged once or twice in the middle. Fun action, even if they went a bit fast and furious with the editing. Samey, yet able to be sequelized, in this era of bottomless pockets and even emptier creative wells.

With all that in-mind, I can honestly give Guy Who Directed the First Three Episodes of Peaky Blinders’s Robin Hood a ***/** ‘Risk Assessment.

Next review: Creed II (Nov. 21st) and The Christmas Chronicles (Nov. 22nd)