Robin Hood (2010)
May 20th, 2010 | by Ridhima Suri |
My rating 7.6/10 Rating on IMDB 7.1/10
This is a movie review of Robin Hood (2010).
It contains spoilers.
Robin Hood on a weekday
So I went to see Robin Hood on a weekday (!!) hoping to watch a nice action movie showing the famous legend helping the poor and robbing the rich. Of course I also wanted to see more bow and arrow. In a documentary I saw recently I learnt that arrows were more expensive than most fancy artillery we know of. It was always important for the bowmen to make that one shot matter and not have a volley of shots as in the case of guns. I also saw the movie trailer that looked very promising.
With this background we had a certain image in mind. The movie was far from what we expected. There was no robbing the rich to help the poor. There was no bowman in his famous green dress and a hood. The story captured the making of Robin Hood. The following section highlights what I loved about the movie and what was an ‘eh’.
Whoas! Loved Robin Hood for this:
- Great screenplay.
- Amazing cinematography.
- Awesome war scenes.
- Pleasure to watch Cate Blanchett & Russell Crowe. Amazing chemistry and on-screen tension.
- Good depiction of complex medieval political times.
- Capturing complex human emotions like deceit, loyalty, friendship, respect in a simplistic manner.
- Notice the fonts used to write the name of place shown in the shot. Very pretty.
- Sprinkles of humor here n there is very crisp.
What was an ‘eh’ about Robin Hood
The movie deserves a thumbs up in many departments and the climax was quite good. However, despite amazing war scenes, the story fails to pick up at several points. One is left waiting for something to happen. While we are still waiting for Robin Hood to show us his skill, the director slows the film down further to make the viewer lose interest.
There was little about Robin Hood, you will realize this only when you get to the climax that reads ‘the beginning of Robin Hood!’. I think that was a more appropriate title-’Robin Hood begins’ instead of the current movie name ‘Robin Hood’.At least we would have watched the movie with a different set of expectations.
Normal movie with realistic graphics
All said and done, the movie was a little weak in the narrative but is perhaps one of the most well done movies for ‘normal’ war scenes.
1. By ‘normal’ I mean no digitized, enhanced, unrealistic graphics. Or at least I thought so. At times I wonder if we are forgetting the art of showing something ‘as-is’ without digitally filtering the films and relying on flashy, make belief 3 D graphics..:)
2. By ‘normal’ I also mean a realistic war scene with realistic war tactics-small armies, quick formation of armies, confusion in attacks, advantage to the defending armies, so on and so forth-all pretty well done. Its not flashy and ‘made -up’ where every warrior looks too prepared and things are happening in a pre-determined sequence.
This movie is an original and that is why its a good movie!
Overall you should watch it if you like period movies, war movies, and/or Russell Crowe -Cate Blanchett..:-)
Images: Kosmix
Tags: Movie Reviews, Movies, Review of Robin Hood, Robin Hood (2010)
2 Responses to “Robin Hood (2010)”
By sachin walia on May 20, 2010 | Reply
Nice review Ridhima. I haven’t watched the movie although we were planning to on the last weekend. However I still believe it will be difficult for Ridley Scott to top his own film “Gladiator”. Moreover for some reason people and more importantly critics and reviewers will also compare this film with Gladiator.
By Ridhima Suri on May 21, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the comment Sachin. I for one, went for two reasons: a) the promos looked good b) a movie on the legend sounded super exciting. I did not want to compare the two movies. I do believe a stronger narrative, or perhaps a fast paced storyline would have done wonders for the movie. But overall, I was happy…no regrets. You should watch it for the war scenes.
-Ridhima