Robin Hood (2018) - Weird film.  Weirdly enjoyable as well

I never thought I'd find it so hard to review a film.  Especially when it's simply a 'modern retelling of the Robin Hood tale.' I know every old myth and legend is currently being reworked by Hollywood and most of them seem to fall flat due to people simply being so familiar with the story that they can't be bothered to watch it again, or young enough to only really care about superhero films.

I'd recently watched the (latest) 'King Arthur' film which was also a modern retelling of the old legend.  The critics hated it.  Audiences didn't support it.  And I've completely forgotten it.  Therefore, because it was released at a similar time as 'Robin Hood' both films got lumped together.

When I first started watching 'Robin Hood' I have to say that I didn't like it much.  I checked how long it was (nearly two hours) and felt that I was probably going to turn it off long before the end.  It was just weird.  It played out like a war movie, but with people using bows and arrows.  Then there were Matrix-like fight scenes and characters who you would never think looked like what you'd imagine them to look like.

However, after a while, I have to say the story grew on me.  Yes, it's a completely new take on the legend, but seeing as Robin Hood wasn't a 'real' person, any artistic license can be taken with the source material and no one can really say it's that historically inaccurate.  I read somewhere online that the costume designers were told to make all clothes one part historically accurate and one part futuristic.  And I can sort of see what they meant by that.    The film comes across like 'Lord of the Rings' meets 'Star Wars,' but with people firing arrows on horses.

Taron Egerton plays 'Hood' himself and I do think that he was the glue that held everything together.  He may be young and this film may not be the Box Office success that propels him to true A-list status, but if he can make something as divisive as 'Robin Hood' so enjoyable then I predict he'll go a long way.  I was also surprised to see that the character 'Little John' was played by a man who looked a bit like Hollywood heavyweight, Jamie Foxx.  I was even more surprised when I read in the credits that it really was Jamie Foxx!  If you've seen anything else he's been in you know that he's always worth the money and he certainly went a long way to help the film flow.  Despite Ben Mendelsohn being the Sheriff of Nottingham, he didn't seem to be given as much to work with as some of the other recent roles where he's been allowed to enjoy being evil.  Every other character did what they needed to and the guy who played 'Fryer Tuck' seemed a little too 'comic relief' for my taste, but he wasn't in it that much.

Overall, I'm glad I stuck with it.  In the end I don't really see this as a film about the mythical thief who got famous for stealing from the rich to give to the poor.  Instead, I just see this as an enjoyable action romp with undecipherable locations (certainly don't look like any part of Nottingham that I've ever seen!).  Definitely better than the recent 'King Arthur,' but I doubt it will ever get the sequel it was clearly hoping for.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that