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Title: Robin Hood
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, despite the PG-13 rating the film is extremely violent with gore, a minor sex scene, and language. Recommended for ages 15 and up. |
Is nothing sacred anymore? Look folks, I understand that there are classic stories and characters in the world. I understand this. I also understand that what made them widely popular in the good old days may not exactly entertain people today. This I also understand. But the reboots are not only getting old, I’m not really sure they’re getting any better. J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” and Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Beings” are probably the best examples of how to do a correct reboot, making something fresh out of something old but still feeling familiar. Movies like “Sherlock Holmes” only succeed on a modest level, and fail in a sense that they miss a very basic ingredient to what made the original classic.
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Now Ridley Scott has rebooted “Robin Hood” in the worst possible fashion. The fact that this is being sold as a “prequel” to the legend, but apparently before Robin Hood was a cheerful man who stole from the rich to give to the poor he was a savage warrior with daddy issues. I know I get flack for this opinion all the time, but I don’t think that Russell Crowe is a likable personality. When he plays a mean cuss he is effective, but when he’s the all around nice guy there’s something off about him. In this movie he plays the title character, but he doesn’t even try[ialiaztegsg srvdstbrdtbdrtd] to make him a likable character.
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The story goes that Robin Hood was in the final battle that killed King Richard and made Prince John into King John. Rather then retire peacefully though he decides to go deliver a dead soldier’s sword to his father, which has a phrase written on it that brings up some old memories of the past. It’s when he delivers the sword that he’ll meet Maid Marian (Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett), Friar Tuck (Mark Addy), and a new villain exclusive to this movie named Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong playing his third cardboard cutout villain in a row if I’m not mistaken).
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As classic characters were introduced to the film I found I could care less about them all. The only characters who acted anything like their original counterparts were Friar Tuck and King John, and that’s not much since I’m not even supposed to like King John in the first place. To top it all off Scott directs this movie as if it were “Gladiator 2.” With epic sword fights, betrayals, and “unexpected” deaths that keep themselves at arms length to obtain the PG-13 rating the studio obviously wanted (though judging from the film itself Scott most likely wanted an R).
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The average shot is still five seconds making many scenes a confusing mess to watch, and there’s no sense of fun in this film. Yes I know Robin Hood is old, but it survives because it’s always been a fun story at it’s core. The Errol Flynn version may look hokey, but sit down to watch it and there’s still a good time to be had. Even the Kevin Costner film - which received complaints from parents for it’s violent content - seems tame and entertaining in comparison to this. Ridley Scott has not rebooted Robin Hood so much as he’s made it violent, boring, and unpleasant.
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The grade I give it below would be much lower if the film didn’t look so good. Some of the shots, the costumes, and the settings are all epic and it’s obvious that the movie had a lot talent behind it. With all the money thrown at it though, it doesn’t cover up the fact that fans of Robin Hood will despise how unlikable the character is now, while new people will likely feel they’ve seen this before but in better films. Folks, if some of the above movies were how to do a reboot right then this is a great example of how to do it wrong. I guess we’ll have to wait next week to see if Dreamworks “Shrek Forever After” bucks the reboot trend, seeing as how that looks like a sequel that will also qualify as a reboot.
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