This is a reinterpretation of the legend; I personally think we were due such. We've had plenty of reiterations of the widely accepted version(with that said, I haven't watched many of the movies; I can imagine the Flynn one to be one of the greatest), and, well, that's one of the two things we do with stories like that, we retell and we alter them, the latter usually leaving the mark(for better or worse) of the period in which it was changed. While I have not yet seen Gladiator, I can see a resemblance to what I've heard about it, and I agree that it does hurt the result; this does not feel as satisfying or self-contained as it could and should. Not all the plot lines and themes pay off. Other than that, I can think of relatively little to complain about; I do want to address what several have been saying, that there is not much action(especially early on). I disagree, I'd say there's a nice amount throughout, albeit it does not tend to last very long. The battle sequences are cool, with moments of awesomeness. This is exciting, and the camera-work sometimes puts you right in the middle of fights and the like. The editing and cinematography are marvelous, with grand, epic shots as well as the single most beautifully photographed firing of an arrow I've ever seen. At parts of this, I was reminded of Kingdom of Heaven. This has a lot of realism and is quite authentic, and they wrote in actual historic events(from the time this is set) that I haven't heard of being connected with Mr. Hood before. The sense of humor is largely good, with few jokes falling flat. I didn't think that this was excessively somber, although it could be clearer in what it wants to be. Russell could be argued as being too old, but he's certainly fit enough. I don't think the script was harmed by the rewrites. The cast is marvelous(Mark Strong being in this made me look forward to it all the more), and everyone delivers a stellar performance. Blanchett gives Marian a willpower and independence not seen before. The tone is gritty. This has a fairly solid pace; I was not bored at any point of it, if it's not all fast. One can tell Ridley's considerable cinematic talent, even if this is not his best. There is plenty of moderate(occasionally graphic and bloody) violence and disturbing content, brief sexual visual(no nudity) references and infrequent mild language in this. I recommend this to fans of those who made it and/or the source material(provided you don't mind it not being like you remember it). 7/10
Review of Robin Hood
