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The 2010 adaptaion of Robin Hood had originally started out as director Ridley Scott's attempt to portray Robin as a criminal and his enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham as the protagonist. Instead, the writing process has caused the film to take a 180 degree turn back to its original roots. The second trailer has recently premiered to show the plot in slightly better detail.
The preview opens to an old man telling Robin that his father was a visionary and knew kings had a need of their subjects. His father manages to introduce to Robin at a young age a tablet which reads "Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions", shortly before he is decapitated by soldiers. Robin realizes his father's intentions were to never give up his beliefs.
We see that King John (Oscar Isaac) doesn't share the ideals of Robin's father. Instead he says that every subject is demanded to be loyal to him. He enforces this belief with the help of his scarred servant Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong) who gives the people a simple choice: "Pay or burn."
Enter Lady Marian (Cate Blanchett) who tells Robin how terrible King John's rule is. He actually turned a table over in front of his wife! Oh, the unspeakable horror! God forbid he breaks a window in the next scene!
Okay, okay, sarcasm aside, he's burning villages to the ground. So Robin decides they need to do something. He enlists the help of other like-minded thinkers who decide to become archers to combat John's forces, presumably giving Godfrey the scar he's seen in the beginning of the trailer with. Furious, the king declares Robin and anyone who joins him to be outlaws.
But just when you think Robin's problems are bad, they get worse. For reasons unspecified, Robin and Marian are forced to share a room for the night. Marian tells Robin that if he even moves to touch her...well, to put it in her own words...sever his manhood. Naturally Robin seems to brush it off, even when he sees the ACTUAL KNIFE in her boot, ready to be used.
From here Robin begins to follow in what we assume to be his father's footsteps (or for a more fitting metaphor, handprint). He begins to mass up a rebellion against John forces, to which the king retaliates by telling Godfrey to assemble as many men as he needs. Robin realizes that it's time to step up against the odds and challenges John's armies, accepting who he's supposed to be.
What follows is a great montage of Robin and his followers battling Gofrey and the King's soldiers on a beach with a great choir music to pump your speakers. The style of the battle that follows is almost a Medieval-like Saving Private Ryan D-Day opener, all the while Robin duels with Godfrey intercut with footage of the famed archer growing closer to Marian. We're also seen Marian will be involved in much of the action by both bow and sword, which feels both strong and natural coming from an actress like Blanchett.
The trailer concludes with one last shot (literally) of a bloody Robin letting an arrow loose with the tagline repeated. "Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions."
The style of this adaptation seems to bring us back to the colourful Medieval environments we grew up with as kids, but with enough lighting and filth on these actors to make it look grimy and war-ridden. The movie is taking a bold step with its almost stereotypical looking costumes, but it's that realism that will likely sell the audience at least a decent portion of realism. When you're wearing outfits like that, the actors are probably wanting as much blood and dirt over them as possible!
The dialogue spoken has several instances where it's so unimaginative you can practically smell the cheddar, but the performances we're glimpsed at show that these actors are putting hard effort into their lines. Blachett shows Marian close to the presence of Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings but she differentiates when it comes to personality. Crowe as the title character of Robin demonstrates him as quite similar to Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace in Braveheart, particularly when it comes to battle speeches, motivations and intentions of overthrowing oppressive monarchs. We'll have to wait and see just how unique a road he may take the character.
RATING: 7/10
-Braydon K
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