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This review contains a bunch of spoilers... don't read it unless you've watched the movie.
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Did anyone else watch "Robin Hood" with Russell Crowe and Caitlin Blanchette?
I wanted to vent about it, because the movie is so promising, but so much of it makes no sense in the end.
What's promising: Good actors (Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett) Interesting plot, with a complicated yet followable set of intrigues. Big budget war movie (I love big fight scenes). Nice period piece touches.
What makes no sense: The battlescenes.
For example, the climactic battlescene. OK, the major point of the plot is that the English traitor is helping incite the Northern barons against the king. When the country is at war with itself, the French can land on the Northern edge of France with no opposition.
Yet Robin manages to keep the kingdom together without a war, and unifies England. So England is waiting at the exact location of the French army.
Specifically, the French are to land on a beach at the base of the cliff. The English are there in enough time to plant archers at the top of the cliff, and are raining arrows down on the French army as they're coming off their boats.
Simultaneously, the English cavalry goes to the beach and charges the Frenchmen on the beach.
My obvious question: why charge at all? Why don't the English cavalry just wait safely on the beach and let the archers annihilate the entire landing of the French army? If the French try to ascend the cliff, the cavalry can surely block them. And no matter how thick your shields are, eventually a rain of arrows will disintegrate the army. The English army can take 0 losses and inflict a crushing defeat on the invading army. Sounds pretty good to me.
The English have the battle 100% won before the fighting starts, yet for the sake of drama, decide to charge the beach. Probably the reason for this is to ensure that a climactic encounter occurs between Robin and the principle bad guy of the movie.
Morever, since the French know their plan has gone seriously awry, shouldn't they turn around before landing? There shouldn't be an army waiting at the cliff where you're landing, but there is one, and it's prepared, and you're in a tactically untenable position.
If you value your soldiers at all, just sail back to France and call it a day when you arrive at a war situation that feels totally wrong and you risk total annihilation.
Other plot points that make no sense:
Why does the bad guy so confident when he assaults Nottingham? When Russell Crowe's armed cavalry suddenly shows up, he has no idea how many troops are attacking and what their armament is. Yet his reaction is just to sneer and call his men to defend themselves. How about retreat? Or ordering people to bunker down? He also doesn't anticipate that a hostile populace he's just attacked will immediately attack him, also making his position 10X worse.
In the end, how do they know that Robin is Robin Longstride all of a sudden when they're chanting his name? How does this make any sense? He's fought as the nobleman's son the entire time, and suddenly the army of England is chanting his real name? What???
I can see why this movie got greenlighted, why it cost so much money, and also why it busted. Great actors, great macro plot setting... and the details just make me shake my head.
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Why did Aragorn wait until the Uruks were 2 feet away from Helm's Deep to start shooting?
Why did the French attack at Agincourt?
Why did Boxer bunker rush Yellow not once, not twice, but three times?
+ Show Spoiler +Because it makes for good drama!
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That movie sucked in all ways possible. Horrible plot, horrible acting (even from Crowe) and horrible effects.
Also, as for what you're asking, it has no relevance much to the movie. In those times, that actually does accurately describe what a lot of engagements would be like. A charge from the cavalry would serve to break the back of the opponent. It's never been very efficient, but that's just how it worked historically.
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That movie was horrible. I was so excited for it too. I couldn't wait for the movie to be over when i saw it in theaters.
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On January 24 2011 14:58 Elegy wrote:Why did Aragorn wait until the Uruks were 2 feet away from Helm's Deep to start shooting? Why did the French attack at Agincourt? Why did Boxer bunker rush Yellow not once, not twice, but three times? + Show Spoiler +Because it makes for good drama!
French attacked in battle of Agincourt was for the drama?
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On January 24 2011 15:17 yrag89 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2011 14:58 Elegy wrote:Why did Aragorn wait until the Uruks were 2 feet away from Helm's Deep to start shooting? Why did the French attack at Agincourt? Why did Boxer bunker rush Yellow not once, not twice, but three times? + Show Spoiler +Because it makes for good drama! French attacked in battle of Agincourt was for the drama?
this made me rofl irl .. touche!
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On January 24 2011 15:17 yrag89 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2011 14:58 Elegy wrote:Why did Aragorn wait until the Uruks were 2 feet away from Helm's Deep to start shooting? Why did the French attack at Agincourt? Why did Boxer bunker rush Yellow not once, not twice, but three times? + Show Spoiler +Because it makes for good drama! French attacked in battle of Agincourt was for the drama?
Eh, I needed an example of a completely moronic attack for dramatic baller reasons and it fit the bill. I guess Charge of the Light Brigade, or at least the sensationalist version, would have worked better. Maybe Constantine's decision in 1453 to stay in Constantinople and not flee would have worked too ^^
Anyways, I like Russell Crowe a lot and was planning on watching Robin Hood, but no one I've talked to really enjoyed it =/
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I watched like half of it till the dvd i rented sucked it up and broke. But first half was pretty awesome but you have to understand Russel Crowe is one of those actors that isn't there to make a good movie but is there to make women cream them selves.  the movie doesn't have to make sense.
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On January 24 2011 15:47 Elegy wrote:
Eh, I needed an example of a completely moronic attack for dramatic baller reasons and it fit the bill. I guess Charge of the Light Brigade, or at least the sensationalist version, would have worked better. Maybe Constantine's decision in 1453 to stay in Constantinople and not flee would have worked too ^^
Anyways, I like Russell Crowe a lot and was planning on watching Robin Hood, but no one I've talked to really enjoyed it =/
maybe Napoleon Bonaparte burning empty Moscow then having to retreat with the remains of his army?
anyways I remember walking around the mall completely bored noticing the poster. This was probably the first time I went to see a movie by myself, just because I had nothing better to do. Didn't think much of it, hard to blame it for bad acting either since it wasn't worse than 95% of shit they show at the movie theater. Killed some time, no hard feelings. Actually thought Cate Blanchett was kind of cute.
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Canada11511 Posts
I personally thought it was a decent movie, but really did fall apart at the end. The last battle doesn't make sense for the reason given. And it bugged me that Maid Marion just shows up at the end with the Lost Boys. That, and although I like that they were dealing with the Magna Carta, I didn't like how it was executed. Particularly that Robin Hood was instrumental in jump starting the Magna Carta.
But the beginning to middle was good. It just seemed they didn't know how to end it properly so they threw in a big battle at the end that made no sense. Even the sense of danger that a climatic ending should have seemed reduced as the British was stopping the French before they did any damage with their main army. They had positional advantage. When watching the film, I was thinking, looks like the French decided to Dieppe (Canadian WWII fiasco), definitely not going to win.
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oh shit, I completely forgot about Magna Carta. That had some weird timing because same precise week I was writing a huge assignment on it. Made me smile.
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This movie was absolutely brutal. Boring, confusing plot, shitty acting by all parties and the fight scenes weren't even that entertaining if you were just watching at 2 am just for something cool to see.
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To be honest, here is how I felt about the movie.
Good actors
Good director
Good concept
Horrible script that made no sense.
Oh well.
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damn was i the only one that liked it?
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Saw it in theaters when it came out and though it was a decent action flick, it didn't capture the spirit of Robinhood for me. Russell Crowe is too serious and too big of a guy to play him imo.
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EPT
