briarwood | May. 14th, 2010

Robin Hood last night was...um. You know, if it wasn't called Robin Hood I'd probably be here saying what a great film it was. I like historical/costume dramas. This one has a good, solid plot, good actors, good characters. Russell Crowe is effectively reprising his role in Gladiator, but tortured hero is a role that suits him. Mark Strong chews the scenery effectively as his nemesis (though the relationship does lack the intensity of Maximus/Commodus). The cinematography is amazing. The battle scenes are brutal without being overly gory. I liked the way the movie handled the class differences between the characters: you got a real sense of the stratified feudal society but they could still interact as human beings. I had a WTF moment with Robin being able to read (in a time when mostly only Churchmen had that kind of education) but that was the only outstanding anachronism. Not saying there weren't others, just only that one really bothered me.

But it wasn't Robin Hood. It's great that the movie avoided a lot of the Robin Hood cliches, but there's a core to the Robin Hood story that this movie missed completely. It's framed as an origin story and that's part of the problem: you don't get to see the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest until literally the last 30 seconds of the movie. But that left me with a feeling that okay, now the story can get started... and having the credits roll right then was a cheat! An origin story works great if you're aiming for a franchise, like Batman. As a stand-alone, I'm not so sure.

Still, a good movie.

TVT was down this morning, so I am avoiding DW and LJ until I can grab the season finales. This seems to happen to TVT almost every year on SPN finale day and it's the only site where I can get a download fast enough to watch the ep before I leave for work.

Ah, well.