Netflix: Robin Hood (2018)

AKA Robin Begins. This is an attempt to make the character of Robin Hood cool and modern and sexy. If that appeals to you then you should find enough to enjoy here. If you would much prefer your Robin Hood to be more like either Errol Flynn or the fox from the Disney animated version of the tale then I would suggest you move along.

Taron Egerton is our Robin here, accompanied back from his time at war by "John" (Jamie Foxx). Upon his return to England, Robin finds that his beloved Marian (Eve Hewson) has started another relationship with Will (Jamie Dornan), believing that Robin died overseas. He also finds the people being forced into poverty by the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn). Thus begins a campaign that turns into "rob from the rich to give to the poor". Robin makes many enemies, but he also maintains a few valuable allies, including Friar Tuck (Tim Minchin).

Although director Otto Bathurst has no other theatrically-released features to his credit, there's nothing here that shows him unsuited to this kind of thing. Whatever criticisms you might have about this film, and there are many things to be critical of, it at least makes decent use of a good cast to stop it from being anywhere near the actual nadir of blockbuster entertainment. The same can be said of writers Ben Chandler and David James Kelly. They may not be as sharp or clever as they think, but they're far from the worst offenders when it comes to the plotting and dialogue (although I could have really done without the narration basically telling us "you think you know the story of Robin Hood, but here's the REAL story as you've never seen it before").

There are a few decent action set-pieces, enough to make the 116-minute runtime feel just right, but your opinion of this may very well depend on how you feel about Robin Hood being given the bombastic style usually used with more modern action heroes. I'm still not sure if that in itself is a bad idea or if I was irritated by the times that overused the same tricks and effects.

Egerton is a good choice for the lead, having shown us before how well he can do the charming rogue figure. He's a great fit, and always believable, even as the stunts become wilder and more dangerous. Foxx is a fantastic partner for him, and seems equally capable in the inventive action beats. Hewson is an appropriately lovely Marian, Mendelsohn is an appropriately nasty Sheriff of Nottingham, and they complete a central quartet good enough to make up for the lethargic Dornan and a sorely mis-cast Minchin.

Arguably too old-fashioned in content for younger viewers and too modern and flashy for older viewers, I'm not surprised that this didn't set the box office alight when it was released. I wouldn't have minded if it did better though. I may not rush to rewatch it, and I'm not sure who in my friend circle I would recommend it to, but I'd prefer to watch a sequel to this than watch yet another Sony superhero movie.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share