Robin Hood Re-Imagined #movie_review

Robin Hood is a classic tale, but this movie gives it a twist.
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Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton) would like nothing more than to hang around his manor house with his girlfriend Marian (Eve Hewson) but when the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn) needs money and soldiers, he sends Robin off to fight in the Crusades.

​When Robin returns four years later, he’d lost everything…his manor, his money and Marian. But with the help of one of the Moors he’d been fighting (Jamie Foxx), Robin sets out to bring the Sheriff to his knees by taking the money away from the church and the Sheriff. And hopefully win back Marian from her husband, an up and coming politician who is trying to bring change to the mines and people of Nottingham.

​Re-made to feel edgy, the action scenes in Robin Hood feel modern rather than historical. The crusades were fought like a SEAL mission against a Gatling gun shooting metal rods. They wore dessert colors and hid among the pillars to avoid the arrow-fire. Horses climbing stairs and racing  across wooden catwalks will make you want to check that no animals were harmed. The clothes were out of place within the medieval time period. Machine stitched leather and high-heeled shoes. The movie felt more like a cross between Gladiator and Matrix. However, the action was exciting and kept me engaged, even though I had no personal interest in the lives of the characters. 

​The big twist came about at the end of the movie when you find out the whole tale is only the beginning…Robin in the forest with his Merry Men. A new sheriff is in town and he has every reason to hate Robin—he stole the sheriff’s wife. 

​Taron’s Robin was both charming and secretive as he cozied up to the Sheriff, earning a spot at the “big table”. Fresh off the Kingsman 2 movie, Taron was handpicked as the lead. The director even held up filming for him. Did the delay put Robin Hood out at a bad time? Or was it the remaking of a familiar tale that had it struggling at the box office (cost 100,000,000 to make and only earned 25,000,000).

​The movie has over the top action but shows very little changes to the story which has been told over and over again. Much like last year’s King Arthur, Robin Hood leaves viewers reminiscing over the originals which were hard to beat.