My first gripe with Robin Hood is the overbearing music written by Marc Streitenfeld - it felt like the music was trying to compensate with noise for the dirty, dull colours. I don't know if it's the English weather or the cinematography or just the cinema's projector but it just didn't jump off the screen. I kept thinking of the grime on the Nostromo (Alien) it was at least BLACK black! This is perhaps half the reason that even the swooping supposed-to-be grand aerial shots of the beach and mountains and valleys looked puny, even on a big screen. It is a big screen after all to fill with LIGHT!
The only thing of beauty was the white steed with the flowing mane Robin rides over hill and dale - mine eye did dote for beauty is not else found here.
The performances are ok. Personally, I think Cate Blanchett might have had more to play off if Robert Downey Jr played Robin - he has light and dark in his performances. Russell Crowe seems to have forsaken his lighter side which I liked most before he went to Hollywood in films like Proof or (dare I say it) The Sum of Us. He has become his own antithesis.
The highlights of this film are the two or three seconds of humour with the "Merry Men". I didn't expect to accept Russell Crowe as any kind of Robin Hood but this isn't Robin Hood as is popularly known so this acceptance came easily. But! I had to go and see a real "Iron Man" to shake this Robin Hood. I recommend Iron Man 2 - which (if you can believe it) does serve up more of a story than Robin Hood. Save this one for DVD. I liked the documentary style of subtitles letting us know where we were - at the start. They really went for it at the start with a lot of information being thrown around which is confusing. Robin's boyhood flashbacks. The French, the English ... and they kinda of lost me when King Richard DIED! I mean! The whole story of Robin Hood hinges on Richard's return and we know at the start that he's dead? Then I couldn't concentrate on the story running ahead - I then needed subtitles to give me context.
As the movie progressed and the story really didn't satisfy in any way at all I grew to resent it. The love story's lame. Though Crowe and Blanchett do their best.
I couldn't really understand why the writer would put words in their mouths about "It's not a gift if you have to ask" and then make a point of making each of them ask - it was kinda cute but still annoying. And then they broke the romantic tension by giving away the first kiss and the pledge of love before the most dramatic moment of the film - could've done with a bit more story tension as opposed to the din of music and the blur of hoofs.
I kept looking for visual pegs in the all the action - the action or battle and chase scenes didn't seem structured - or was it the editing? I didn't like it.
It's not a bad movie - although I saw a young couple grow increasingly frustrated and they left the cinema before the end. You will need patience - alas, not a virtue developed among those of us used to being spoon fed our stories. But it's making money at the Take a look for yourself. You'd better see the movie for yourself. I'd like to know what you think.