beer good
Well-Known Member
Robin Hood (2010)
Well, that was 2 1/2 hours wasted. Not that Scott's last few (read: last 20 years) movies have impressed me that much, but I honestly thought he'd be able to at least do something with the Robin Hood myth. Not necessarily anything fantastic, but just... something.
Instead, what we get is essentially Gladiator II, with Russel Crowe playing a "Robin Longstride" utterly devoid of emotion (except for that one scene where he roars in slow-motion, which had me cracking up so much I thought I'd never stop laughing), motivation, character depth or any sort of ideas that are not nicked wholesale from Braveheart. And Braveheart, as we all know, sucked. The story has very little to do with either of the many versions of Robin Hood - like many recent action movies (Batman Begins, Iron Man, etc) the whole thing feels like a prequel to the actual story, but I can't imagine anyone trying to turn this into a franchise - which isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, myths are there to be re-told, but Scott barely tells us anything at all we haven't already seen in a hundred historical action movies. This is just a cookie-cutter film with the names "Robin", "Marion" and "John" randomly attached to the Hero, the Love Interest, and the Villain. Surely if you market something as "the real story behind the legend", the story has to at least have some similarity to the legend?
There are a few things that work. Blanchett and von Sydow (not the first time he's played a crusader knight with something to do before he dies, of course) have great chemistry, probably partly because they have very little dialogue in their scenes and so get to act rather than just spout clichés about FREEDOM and the evils of the French. There's a typical Robin Hood caper stuck in the middle (and looking very out of place) that's amusing. There are some nice battle scenes which feel relatively more realistic than most films... OK, so the French army gets chopped to bits in 30 seconds by a ragtag bunch of Englishmen who just rode from Barnsdale to Dover in 20 minutes, but the French were obviously tired from rowing some very modern-looking landing crafts all the way across the channel.
Every generation gets its Robin Hood. The myth is very flexible, and adapts to any zeitgeist. But damnit, you have to at least try.
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Spartacus
It's fun to go back and watch Spartacus after seeing Rome and Caligula and Spartacus: Blood And Sand and I, Claudius and everything else that followed it. And discover that despite some Old Hollywood unfortunalities, the voice-over at the beginning, the self-congratulatory pre-Braveheart talk of FREEEDOOOOM etc, it still holds up damn well even if you can tell that Kubrick didn't have creative control.
Kick-Ass
High school kid is disappointed in humanity for not doing anything to help each other and improve the world. So he dresses up in a wet suit and a mask and becomes the superhero Kick-Ass, who fights crime alongside the Batman lookalike Big Daddy and his very violent and foul-mouthed 10-year-old daughter Hit Girl. The end result could have been either incredibly disturbing or incredibly stupid, but balances well enough to end up somewhere in the middle as just... well, fun comic book violence action comedy. But Defendor was better.
Well, that was 2 1/2 hours wasted. Not that Scott's last few (read: last 20 years) movies have impressed me that much, but I honestly thought he'd be able to at least do something with the Robin Hood myth. Not necessarily anything fantastic, but just... something.
Instead, what we get is essentially Gladiator II, with Russel Crowe playing a "Robin Longstride" utterly devoid of emotion (except for that one scene where he roars in slow-motion, which had me cracking up so much I thought I'd never stop laughing), motivation, character depth or any sort of ideas that are not nicked wholesale from Braveheart. And Braveheart, as we all know, sucked. The story has very little to do with either of the many versions of Robin Hood - like many recent action movies (Batman Begins, Iron Man, etc) the whole thing feels like a prequel to the actual story, but I can't imagine anyone trying to turn this into a franchise - which isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, myths are there to be re-told, but Scott barely tells us anything at all we haven't already seen in a hundred historical action movies. This is just a cookie-cutter film with the names "Robin", "Marion" and "John" randomly attached to the Hero, the Love Interest, and the Villain. Surely if you market something as "the real story behind the legend", the story has to at least have some similarity to the legend?
There are a few things that work. Blanchett and von Sydow (not the first time he's played a crusader knight with something to do before he dies, of course) have great chemistry, probably partly because they have very little dialogue in their scenes and so get to act rather than just spout clichés about FREEDOM and the evils of the French. There's a typical Robin Hood caper stuck in the middle (and looking very out of place) that's amusing. There are some nice battle scenes which feel relatively more realistic than most films... OK, so the French army gets chopped to bits in 30 seconds by a ragtag bunch of Englishmen who just rode from Barnsdale to Dover in 20 minutes, but the French were obviously tired from rowing some very modern-looking landing crafts all the way across the channel.
Every generation gets its Robin Hood. The myth is very flexible, and adapts to any zeitgeist. But damnit, you have to at least try.
-Spartacus
It's fun to go back and watch Spartacus after seeing Rome and Caligula and Spartacus: Blood And Sand and I, Claudius and everything else that followed it. And discover that despite some Old Hollywood unfortunalities, the voice-over at the beginning, the self-congratulatory pre-Braveheart talk of FREEEDOOOOM etc, it still holds up damn well even if you can tell that Kubrick didn't have creative control.
Kick-Ass
High school kid is disappointed in humanity for not doing anything to help each other and improve the world. So he dresses up in a wet suit and a mask and becomes the superhero Kick-Ass, who fights crime alongside the Batman lookalike Big Daddy and his very violent and foul-mouthed 10-year-old daughter Hit Girl. The end result could have been either incredibly disturbing or incredibly stupid, but balances well enough to end up somewhere in the middle as just... well, fun comic book violence action comedy. But Defendor was better.
SPOILER!
