RATING GIVEN: 6 out of 10
"Could have been Great….. but wasn’t!"
Before seeing the film I had received a few mixed reviews from friends who had already watched it.
Though I couldn’t discard the fact that the two previous epic films by Ridley Scott (Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven) each set a pretty high standard, I was intent on going in with an open mind set.
As the film started I could immediately see the quality of the filming was high, the environments and lighting were spot on, and the film progressed at a good pace. The character introduction was good, it immediately highlighting the tight bond between Robin Longstride and his soon to be Merry men. As the movie progressed things started to go wrong. The pace was too fast and the story was being rushed along. Scenes started to no longer be convincing, gaps and inconsistencies appeared more and more often.
The battle scenes were truly disappointing. The whole English army consisted of a couple thousand men which considering this is supposed to be a historically accurate film, I am sure raised a few eyebrows. The story line became very predictable, being rushed along by too many events to try and push into one film. There were no surprises, no real twists that are needed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Considering Crowe and Blanchett have 2 Oscars and 7 nominations between them I was expecting a performance that was comparable to that in Gladiator, but I was unfortunately disappointed. There is no real depth to the performance and apart from the pleasure of seeing Max Von Sydow (Lord Loxley) and a few good bits from Mark Strong (Godfrey), I was quite disappointed. It must be said that the chemistry between Blanchet and Crowe seemed to be there but these few scenes didn’t save the film overall.
In conclusion it must be said that I kind of enjoyed the film, it was not a bad film, but it didn’t really fulfil its potential. It tries to do too much, thus failing to do it well. With a director and cast of this magnitude one would expect something truly special, which unfortunately was not the case. To the questions as to whether we will see a sequel I can only say that I am not really torn in any direction. If they don’t a lot of people will be happy, if they do, I hope they take on some of the feedback onboard and come up with something that is worth watching.
I did not like at all:
(Spoiler alert) Open ending and Sequel
CONCLUSIONS
I enjoyed the film, it was by no means a bad film, but it didn’t really fulfil the potential it had. For me it tries to do too much, thus failing to do it well. With a director and cast of this magnitude one would expect something truly special, which unfortunately was not the case.
---By Jasper Arnoldus for the MDM at Wonderlance
