A review of the latest “Robin Hood” film
Following Kevin Costner (1991) and Russell Crowe (2010), we now have a much younger actor – Taron Egerton of the two “Kingsman” films – in the hands of a new film director – Otto Bathurst, all of whose previous work has been on television – attempting to do something new with this mythic hero of 12th century England.
A major problem is that the work does not feel English: it was shot by an Hungarian crew in Croatia and we have actors from Ireland, Australia and the United States. Also it does not feel authentic: the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn) in particular looks and sounds out of place, wearing contemporary clothing and giving a speech which could have been uttered by a modern populist politician when he isn’t hinting at child abuse.
Where the film does score is in its action sequences which are plentiful and owe a lot to CGI. The plot is an origin story and the producers clearly hope that they’ve created a new franchise, but I’m certainly not holding my breath for a sequel.