Movie Review: Robin Hood

There have been many films based on Robin Hood. This Robin Hood is the latest one, starring Russell Crowe. As everyone probably knows, Robin Hood is an old English tale about a man who robs from the rich and gives it to the poor, and his accompanied by his merry band. This movie however, takes a step back and looks at Robin's story before he became the infamous outlaw.

At the start of the movie, Robin Longstride is serving King Richard's 3rd crusade against the French, as the leader of the archers. King Richard is slain in combat, and a convoy is heading back to England to return the Crown. Robin of Locksley is in charge of the convoy, but they were ambushed by the French who are led by an English traitor. Robin's group by chance, run into the ambush and help fight the French off. Locksley's dying wish was for Robin to return his sword to his father. Thus Robin Longstride takes on the name Robin of Locksley, and his group dress up as knights so that they can return to England. From there the story unfolds, as the French prepare to make their counter-attack.

There were a lot of mixed opinions among my friends and other people who have seen the movie. I personally thought it was a good decision to steer away from the mainstream storyline, and I found it interesting to see events before the actual Robin Hood story. Although, I guess I can't be sure whether that was the actual story, as there are other adaptations where Robin is actually the knight of Locksley, and not just pretending. I felt there was enough action in the movie, although others thought there wasn't enough... I don't think movies should be too overloaded with action though, otherwise it's going to have no storyline at all.

The only things I didn't like were that Robin very rarely used his bow, which is supposed to be his signature weapon, and the other thing is I felt that the final battle was a little one-sided. When you see the final battle, in all honesty... the English could've just sat there and wiped out the French with their archers... there was a very unnecessary cavalry charge. Therefore, I felt that the final battle wasn't very well planned from a director's point of view.

Overall, I think the movie was fairly good. I'd give it a 7/10 rating.