This probably isn't the Robin Hood you were expecting. Ridley Scott's loud, clanging take on the story of England's most famous outlaw might as well be a superhero movie for all the time it spends on origins and Robin's development of a sense of right and wrong. There's no idyll in Sherwood Forest here; Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) and his love and comrade-in-arms Marian (Cate Blanchett) don't arrive in the forest until literally the last scene of the movie. Before that there are two hours plus of court politics and motivation as Scott takes Robin from a skilled but inconsequential archer in the army of Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) to the leader of the English citizenry's quest for individual liberty.
Scott's Robin Hood owes something visually to Braveheart, the weather is unrelentingly cloudy and the production design favors dank and realistic over the soundstage look. The action is sharp and close-in; there are no slo-mo montages set to Lisa Gerrard songs and that choice feels right. The climactic battle scene on a beach is a tactile flurry of sand, water, and blood. I wish the dramatic scenes had been as nimbly put together as the action material. When callow King John (Oscar Isaac) assumes the throne there is much discussion of taxes and loyalties. The King's mother Eleanor (Eileen Atkins) and the loyal Marshal (William Hurt) don't have much to do other than stand around and fret while the traitorous Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong, better used in other roles) makes an alliance with the French King.
What does all this have to do with Robin? Not very much at first, since his main goal is get safely home from the Crusades. A chance encounter with a dying knight leads to Nottingham and assuming the identity of Robin Loxley with the assistance of Marian and Loxley's father (a spry Max Von Sydow, whom I would have happily have seen more of). What slows the movie down is Scott's determination to have Robin not be only an action hero but the founder of modern democratic ideals as well. A garbled backstory involving Robin's father leads to a long scene of speeches that stops the movie's momentum. All this seriousness of purpose doesn't allow Crowe much room to breathe, it's a dour and interior performance. Blanchett nicely suggests reserves of long-buried emotion but is also on the sidelines for too long. Robin Hood has talent and style to burn but is dragged down by its need to make its hero relevant. Ridley Scott and his team could have used a little more of that outlaw spirit.
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