Grade: B

The new Robin Hood movie is pretty mediocre. It is lacking the adventurous feel of the old Robin Hood movies, and orphans too many interesting threads of plot. In the end, it really doesn’t convey a memorable story.

This movie is the precursor to the Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie that kicked ass in the 90′s. That movie was tight, concise, well written, and action packed the whole time.

This new movie, while the acting, especially Russel Crowe and Maid Marion, is quite good, falls far short. It is good entertainment though. A few good action scenes and some amazing trick-shots with a bow and arrow.

My major gripe is that there are too many characters introduced, too many “short stories” told about them, and very few of those stories ever conclude. Robin’s father, for example, gets about 5 minutes of screen time. The point of his appearance is to explain why Robin becomes a fighter against the tyrannical monarchy, but even a computer scientist like myself knows that writers need to develop a character more for him to impact the viewer. This such quick flash story happens at least five times. Big wonder why I can’t remember the exact count: The story just wasn’t that memorable.

Plus, who does a PG-13 action movie anyway??. No blood and no breasts, what a letdown!

The arch villain looked just like my girlfriend’s ex, and when he inevitably dies, we got a good smile.