CASEY PHILLIPS: If there’s one thing we, and especially Ridley Scott, should learn from “Robin Hood,” it’s that you don’t mess with a myth.
As a part of our cultural history, most people probably know the Robin Hood story backward and forward, but Scott has approached the legend from a new angle by focusing on his origins.
Because this is a reimagined prequel, many of the characters are quite different than you remember. Robin (Russell Crowe) is a tragic figure of low birth, not a noble stripped of his land. Prince John (Oscar Isaac) is still a jerk but actually becomes king when Richard the Lion Heart is killed during the Crusades (historically accurate, but not as fun). Maid Marion (Cate Blanchett) is a widow and heir to a depressed land, not a high-ranking noble.
Despite some serious acting clout, the film replaces the expected merriment with an overabundance of seriousness, large-scale battles and other Scott accouterment that feel entirely out of place. So little homage is made to the myth that if it weren’t for the familiar character names, this would be “just another Scott underdog epic.”