He’s starred in some impressive films since he donned a loin cloth in 2000, like Cinderella Man and A Beautiful Mind. None of this changes the fact that when Russell Crowe was first seen in the trailer for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, many immediately dubbed it, “Gladiator … in the forest.”
Whether it was the inability to shake this thought of high hopes for a great director's newest movie, from a great director, or just the excitement of seeing English folk lore’s favourite outlaw in all his high-budget glory, the movie ended up being a bit of a disappointment,- which is not to say people won’t watch it.
It’s one of those things you have to try once, like Chef Boyardee or O-Town, but it doesn’t mean you want to do it again.
The movie is set up as a prequel to the legends of Robin Hood. Russell Crowe is Robin Longstride, an archer fighting in the crusades of King Richard the Lionheart. When the king is killed in battle and his younger brother John takes up the throne, England becomes sharply divided by John’s heavy-handed politics and disregard for peasant rights.
A chance meeting with a wounded Englishman has Robin, the marauder, travelling to Nottingham to fulfill the man’s dying wish. While there, he must attempt to stop a coup against John, unite his countrymen, and win the affections of a certain Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett).
If the plot sounds a bit jumbled, that’s because it is. Robin Hood somehow manages to make the storyline of a movie that clocks in at almost two-and-a-half hours feel rushed. The need to fit as much action as possible into this re-telling is understandable, but the wholly unnecessary fight scenes, mediocre screenwriting, and lack of character development make this less forgivable.
A big problem is the casting of the lead. Russell Crowe looks less like the devious, nimble thief of Sherwood Forest, and more like the bear that ate him. He robs the role of any of the mirth one might expect from this beloved character, to the point where the audience doesn’t really care what happens to him.
Cate Blanchett, on the other hand, plays the part of spunky Marion quite well. Apart from a couple of horrendous lines exchanged between her and Crowe (“M’lady, I’ll need some help with my chain mail”), the chemistry between the two is rather believable.
The scenery is absolutely stunning—a lot of the shooting took place in Wales— making the movie visually impressive.
On the whole, though, it’s a film you go to when you want to turn your brain off and just stare, slack-jawed, at the action taking place on screen. It is certainly nothing memorable. It’s a shame because it pretty much guarantees that no one else will take a stab at another adaptation of the legend for years to come.