Robin Hood

There have been countless iterations of the legend of Robin Hood over the years, from the swashbuckling Errol Flynn classic, to the equally classic Disney animated film to the Kevin Costner film (which Alan Rickman effortlessly stole for himself), the Mel Brooks parody (which has not aged as well as it should have), to the Russell Crowe version and the semi-recent BBC series that ran for three seasons. Do we really need another version of this well worn tale? That's going to be up to each audience member to decide for themselves, I suppose. 

Robin of Locksley (played by Taron Egerton) lives a life a privilege as Lord of Locksley Manor spending his time watching over his lands and romancing Marion (played by Eve Hewson). Everything changes when he's drafted to join the Crusades and sent to the Middle East to fight in the war. There he meets John (played by Jamie Foxx), a prisoner of war whose son, despite Robin's best efforts, is killed for refusing to give information to help the British soldiers. Robin is sent home from the war, John stowing away on board. Robin returns to find his home in ruins, seized by the Sheriff of Nottingham (played by Ben Mendelsohn) and Marian, thinking Robin having died in the Crusades, having moved on to Will Scarlett (played by Jamie Dornan). He is also horrified to learn that the people are being taxed so much they are having to give up pretty much everything they have to fun the Sheriff's war efforts. His path soon crosses with John, who proposes to train Robin to steal the money back from the Sheriff to help his people and allow John to get vengeance on the man at the command of the army that killed his son (the Sheriff). John knows the best way to hurt the Sheriff, as well as the Sheriff's power, is by redistributing the wealth he has hoarded from his people. Another part of their plan is for Robin to resume his place among the Lords and get close to the Sheriff and earn his trust to learn his plans as well as where he keeps the loot. All the while, that familiar spark with Marian begins to rekindle, no matter how much John wants Robin to resist it and focus on their tasks at hand.    

The film is directed with curious style by Otto Bathurst from a script by Ben Chandler and David James Kelly. It's a film that is a bold mix of the traditional medieval setting of the original legend and a contemporary sensibility. It's not the first Robin Hood outing to do this, the semi-recent BBC series took a similar approach, but this one has a much more unique style to it, taking place in it's own isolated universe with a time period that is never firmly established (the film's narrator plainly states he doesn't recall). This curious flourish allows the film the freedom to mix and match elements with slight more contemporary costuming with the traditional setting. The production design of the film likewise has it's own unique flourishes that certainly make this one of the more unique looking Robin Hood films. As with any film like this, the action is an important part and the filmmakers did come up with some suitably thrilling sequences, including a pretty impressive chase sequence between two horse drawn wagons, as well as a sequence of Robin having to escape an onslaught of guards from a botched robbery on the Sheriff's vaults. They also brought in famed archer Lars Andersen to teach the cast his impressive archery skills and the results speak for themselves as they added some impressive extra level to the usual swashbuckling.

Taron Egerton leads the cast in the titular role, approaching the role with a certain humorous charm he has honed through his career. He makes Robin an appealing hero for the contemporary age and rather worked well in the role. He manages to handle the dual nature of his character quite well, posing as a haughty and well off Lord to the Sheriff while in secret with John plotting to steal the Sheriff's riches. Jamie Foxx adds a certain manic charm to his John, who becomes mentor to Robin, training him to help him get the vengeance he wants from the leader of the army that killed his son, unable to pull it off himself due to losing his hand at the beginning of the film. Ben Mendelsohn gives his own interpretation of the Sheriff of Nottingham, striking similar notes to his villainous turn in Ready Player One earlier this year. His Sheriff isn't as memorably evil as Alan Rickman's, who still holds the crown as far as I'm concerned, but he's still a suitably dastardly villain. Eve Hewson does what she can with the role of Marian, a much more modern, independent and feistier Marion than seen in the older films. She's still functioning primarily as Robin's love interest, in this case as part of a love triangle between her, Robin and Will Scarlett. On that note, Jamie Dornan has a good turn as Will, his character an outspoken man of the people, trying to accomplish things within the system, whereas Robin operates squarely outside of it, setting up an interesting dichotomy between the two that I thought added a nice twist to the usual tale. Tim Minchin has an amusing turn as Friar Tuck who puts on an act of being a bit clumsy and incompetant, but only masks his own attempts to undermine the Sheriff. This in turn adds a good deal of humor to his scenes, which I enjoyed.  

Some critics of this film having been comparing it to last Summer's equally curiously anachronistic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, another film that I enjoyed for what it was. This film isn't high art, but as a fun re-invention of a very oft-told tale. At the same time, I can see that people's mileage will definitely vary with this one. It may not ever quite catch fire the way some may have expected it to, but at the same time it's breezy, popcorn fun that I can't bring myself to dislike at all either.