Robin Hood Movie Review

The following is a movie review “Robin Hood” by Marc Primo.

Release date: 21 November 2018 (United States)

Director: Otto Bathurst

Language: English

Production companies: Summit Entertainment, Appian Way Productions, Safehouse Pictures, Thunder Road Films

Producers: Jennifer Davisson, Leonardo DiCaprio

From Kevin Costner in the title role of 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to Cary Elwes’ 1993 portrayal in the comedy spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights, here comes yet another adaptation of the eponymous character, this time with a tagline that promises a yarn about “the legend you know, the story you don’t”.

Quite a claim to make, considering this is in fact the Nth screen effort over a span of nearly 100 years; the most notable first being a 1922 motion picture that starred screen idol of that era Douglas Fairbanks, and was one of the most expensive films of that decade costing nearly 1 million dollars—an astronomical amount in those days.

Fast forward to Robin Hood’s latest outing 96 years later and we find ourselves under the helm of British veteran television director, whose credentials include episodes of Peaky Blinders and Black Mirror, with support from Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio who is credited as producer.

Taron Egerton of 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service fame is at your service in the title role, with Jamie Foxx as his Moorish commander in a supporting role. The plot is basically what you would come to expect from a Robin Hood flick: audacious revolts and intense fight scenes, with a gratuitous sprinkling of romance.

If the premise and heart & soul of Robin Hood is something that has always enamored you, then this 2018 telling is probably worth a shot, but in my opinion is simply unnecessary. It has its action-packed moments and one liners which, I have yet to determine, were intended to be funny or not.

Egerton and Foxx have enough onscreen chemistry and pull off their respective roles with considerable aplomb. But, considering the timing, one can’t help but wonder if much of their talent is wasted on a naggingly shallow script that ultimately made me wonder if this was a lazy effort from a production company to do what Hood does to the rich, so to speak, and pocket their earnings just in time to ensure that their holidays are merry and bright.

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