Robin Hood: The Rebellion is a 2018 action/adventure film about the legendary hero and his crew of outlaws who execute a daring rescue to save his one true love.
There are some stories that seem eternal, told and retold for each generation, timeless for their tales of adventure and battles of good versus evil. Among this lot is the ubiquitous Robin Hood, a centuries-old figure who has seen his legend portrayed in dozens upon dozens of film and television iterations since the medium began, given everything from a parodic spin to deeply dark takes seeped in gritty authenticity. Now comes Nicholas Winter‘s earnest if timely film, surely meant to take advantage of the big budget movie release coming soon, hoping to catch a little of the fever that film has been brewing.
The story is familiar of course, with Robin Hood (Ben Freeman) and his merrymen hiding out in Sherwood Forest with the spirited Maid Marian (Marie Everett) as the nasty Sheriff of Nottingham (James Oliver Wheatley) goes on the hunt. He soon captures Marian, putting the men in rescue mode, joined by Will Scarlet (James G. Nunn) and the venerable Brian Blessed as Friar Tuck. Lots of talking and fighting leads to a dreary old castle and well, you know (or at least can guess) the rest.
It’s a little baffling how stories like King Arthur, Cinderella, Frankenstein and Robin Hood get tossed on the copy machine so often at the movies, the whole thing sort of ridiculous that studios somehow think that these remakes fill some need in the audience. Sure, each new generation counts as never seen them before, but surely enough is enough at some point. The problem is that you really can’t do much with these tales. They’re iconic and to do anything too far off the route would upset the purists. Rightfully so.
To that effect, Winter doesn’t try to give it much of a spin, sticking to the same old well worn threads we’ve long seen before, though Marian gets herself some time with a blade. He’s not got much of a budget so we’re mostly confined to a small patch of woods and a few dark corners of an ancient keep and not much of the money was spent on fight choreography, with actors doing a lot of weak swinging and lots of yelling. It’s rarely convincing, which is too bad as that’s half the reason anyone signs on to watch this kind of movie.
However, there is no lack of ambition, as Winter clearly strives for something genuine, his actors giving all the gumption they’ve got in looking authentic, even if it sort of comes up short. Freeman is mostly fun to watch and Everett has plenty of charm and go get ’em attitude. Wheatley is, unfortunately, the worst of the bunch, his take on the Sheriff simply one more lunatic with over-the-top cartoonery that is probably meant to be homage to Alan Rickman but comes off more like a poor imitation of Christopher Guest‘s Count Rugen with a sadistic twist.
Either way, despite what is certainly some hard work by the cast and crew, Robin Hood: The Rebellion is just too big a story to tell with the money behind it, losing all sense of scale and scope. It rarely builds the momentum it demands and is bogged down by an uninspired score and generic action. For fans of the legend looking only to tick off every version they can find.