In the last couple of weeks, me and my wife have been shown the trailer to this movie few times and every time we were always hyped up by the seemingly cool action sequences. So when it was announced the movie would be playing on the public holiday on Tuesday, we immediately set our sights to see this one. We managed to get the tickets for the first show in my favorite Dolby Atmos theater and well, let us get into the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton - Kingsman series, Sing etc) was just a regular lord in Nottingham and having a love relationship with Marian (Eve Heweson - Papillon, The Knick TV series etc). But he had to leave all of them for a Crusade after being drafted by the Sheriff (Ben Mendelsohn - Darkest Hour, Bloodline TV series etc).
Years after, when Robin returned to Nottingham, things were completely different with the Sheriff using his power to force tax money from the people, mostly the poor ones. Encouraged by his new found friend Yahya aka John (Jamie Foxx - Baby Driver, The Amazing Spider-man 2 etc), Robin decided to rob the rich but with the aim of hurting the Sheriff and find out who was the people behind him. There were some unwanted complications as well with the appearance of Will (Jamie Dornan - Fifty Shades trilogy, The Fall TV series etc) and Robin's old friend Friar Tuck (Tim Minchin).
As the series of robberies increasingly hurting the Sheriff, he finally recruited a ruthless ex Crusader, Gisborne (Paul Anderson - 24 Hours to Live etc) to capture Robin whom people only knew as The Hood. So how would the story continue? Find them all in this very entertaining action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I have been a fan of Robin Hood tales from a very long time. I have seen many adaptations to this classic tale in various TV series and also the movies like my personal favorite Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner with that lovely song from Bryan Adams titled Everything I Do (I Do it For You) which was a major hit at that time. I even saw the comedy movie Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but my least favorite would be the 2000 version starring Russel Crowe which I thought was too dark and he did not really suit the role. Until I saw this movie which to my personal opinion, was the most action packed version and became another major favorite of mine.
This movie gave a really fresh look and perhaps I could say a re-telling of the way the story have been known to us for many years. This time the major characters still exist, but the movie makers and writers made some of them having a very different background and twists. However, the main part was still there, like Robin's love interest was Marian, and their enemies were still the Sheriff who had the support from Guy of Gisborne and so on. So if you had been fans of Robin Hood and are the type who could only enjoy movie adaptation if the story stick to the original tale, then you might not like this version.
For me and my wife though, we were truly entertained throughout the whole movie. The story was very fast paced, filled with many action sequences that were really well made. The use of bows and arrows were really maximized, with some scenes reminded us of action sequences by Legolas in Lord of the Rings & The Hobbits or by Hawkeye in the Avengers. We were also quite captivated by the fight scenes especially during the time in the mines. That was quite breath taking and the visual effects were put up to good use. Fans of action adventure movie should be thrilled and enjoy those. One thing that surprised me though was the fact the sound effects were the standard Dobly Surround 5.1 (according to the credit scene which did not have any mid or post scenes), but still managed to give us wonderful effects. It was a bit odd, since I noticed from the largest movie database, it should have Dolby Atmos sound system. Nevertheless it did not make our experience less enjoyable.
Another thing that also made this movie set itself apart from other adaptations were the way Robin hid himself which gave a sense of Superhero feeling. In fact my wife and I were also discussing that it had similarity with the famous Batman. It might have something to do with the direction by Otto Bathurst in his feature movie directorial debut. Btw, the actions in here were not completely violent type as it did not show blood spattering all around, but there were 1 or 2 scenes which might not be suitable for children (like person hanging from afar) which was why it was categorized PG-13 in the US. But it was put as 17+ in Indonesia, probably due to those scenes.
Overall, I think this movie was very good in term of action sequence. Those looking for such quality in a movie should not be disappointed as the story was quite fast paced, and there was not a major difficult plot that required heavy thinking to understand. It was even quite light with some amusing scenes occasionally, but there was no emotional or touching moments at all. And the romance might be too little compared to the Kevin Costner version. For me and my wife, we thought this was a truly refreshing take and we loved it. We also liked Taron Egerton in this role which I felt really suit him. After two Kingsman movies and this, perhaps he would receive more action roles in the future. And Ben Mendelsohn was amazing as the really obnoxious Sheriff. But as I said above, those major original Robin Hood fanboys might not be able to enjoy this movie and sadly, the critics did not enjoy it either. However, as I had learnt from the many years watching movies and TV series, I rarely use their opinions as basis anyway. So, if you are fans of action adventure movie, go see this one and have fun and enjoy yourselves.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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