Robin Hood

Year: 2018
Director: Otto Bathurst
Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Jamie Dornan, Tim Minchin, Paul Anderson, F Murray Abraham


Plot: After Robin of Loxley returns to England from the Crusades, he finds his home destroyed and his girl Marian in the arms of another man. Teaming up with Yahya aka John, an Arabian he encountered during the war, he starts robbing money belonging to the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and inspires the common folk to revolt.


Review: This latest version of Robin Hood is comparable not just to the previous versions of the man featuring Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe, among others, but also to last year's remake of King Arthur by Guy Ritchie, due to its contemporary approach by director Otto Bathurst.

In all honesty, how many times can this story be remade and feel fresh? Bathurst may have updated and changed a few things, like the costumes that feel too modern for the time it's set in, the fact that people can shoot arrows as quick as firing a gun, and how Robin meets Little John (in this case, just John), but in the end, the essence of the Robin Hood tale is very much the same. It's not helped by Taron Egerton's extremely dreary opening narration. The dude is a charming actor, but a narrator he is not.

The first action sequence, featuring Robin and his fellow crusaders versus the Arabs, is the best part of the film. Once Robin returns home and joins forces with John, the story starts to get less and less interesting. The action sequence, made to look like a battle in a modern day Middle East, except with arrows, was very well shot and looked pretty good. Everything after that pales in comparison, though the film sporadically feels engaging when Ben Mendelsohn's Sheriff starts a monologue of sorts.

It also doesn't help that Robin's made to look too strong and unbeatable. He always manages to escape and avoid repercussions throughout the film. Even his romance with Marian feels flat, though it's no fault of Egerton and co-star Eve Hewson. Their love story begins rather typically and the subsequent love triangle with Jamie Dornan's Will feels that way too. Even Will's fate, which leaves room for a sequel, is typical.

So what's good about it? Well, Egerton makes a good action hero at least, having done so in Kingsman and succeeds again here. Jamie Foxx makes a good mentor as John, and Mendelsohn excels when he's allowed to act his evilness on screen. Hewson is mostly just a pretty face here and Dornan is bland as he usually is.

What else? Oh, there is a lot of action to behold, though as I've said, none of them compare to the opening battle scene. And the final fight is very anti-climactic, unfortunately.

In the end, this new version of Robin Hood is just meh, for lack of a better word. It's not a terrible movie, but not very memorable either. (6/10)