Robin Hood 1.01
Not sure what to make of it.
I enjoyed it very well, despite the cheesy action scenes and weird camera angles (and those incredibly annoying whoooshing place cards), and the chemistry between Robin and Mariane was delightful, and Richard Armitage was so greasy and Keith Allen so awesome and foul-mouthed. I love that they really worked into Robin and Much's characters their five years fighting in Palestine, and how they're both so sick of war.
And then there was that lords assembly scene, which was probably my favourite, but it was also the scene that felt most out of place. It contained a thinly veiled allegory of the "War on Terror" (Robin feeling not only did the Holy War achieve nothing, but that England had been dragged into it by the Pope Gregory, while at home the people suffered for having to bear the financial burden of it), and the medieval equivalent of a labour/taxation dispute, which had Robin arguing for a less severe hand (as more taxes could be collected from prosperous, trading peasants than from starving ones) while the Sheriff of Nottingham gave us the line that "Hungry men are virtuous" and more hard working. We see the wit and smarts of Robin - the youngest man in the circle - and the character is most magnetic in those scenes, when playing the gallant, rebellious nobleman, or when he's wooing (or trying to woo) Marian. At other times, when he's not squaring off against someone, Robin has an unfortunate habit of looking like one of the peasants (who are universally dull and glum and dirty so far, with the exception of Allan a Dale).
I enjoyed it very well, despite the cheesy action scenes and weird camera angles (and those incredibly annoying whoooshing place cards), and the chemistry between Robin and Mariane was delightful, and Richard Armitage was so greasy and Keith Allen so awesome and foul-mouthed. I love that they really worked into Robin and Much's characters their five years fighting in Palestine, and how they're both so sick of war.
And then there was that lords assembly scene, which was probably my favourite, but it was also the scene that felt most out of place. It contained a thinly veiled allegory of the "War on Terror" (Robin feeling not only did the Holy War achieve nothing, but that England had been dragged into it by the Pope Gregory, while at home the people suffered for having to bear the financial burden of it), and the medieval equivalent of a labour/taxation dispute, which had Robin arguing for a less severe hand (as more taxes could be collected from prosperous, trading peasants than from starving ones) while the Sheriff of Nottingham gave us the line that "Hungry men are virtuous" and more hard working. We see the wit and smarts of Robin - the youngest man in the circle - and the character is most magnetic in those scenes, when playing the gallant, rebellious nobleman, or when he's wooing (or trying to woo) Marian. At other times, when he's not squaring off against someone, Robin has an unfortunate habit of looking like one of the peasants (who are universally dull and glum and dirty so far, with the exception of Allan a Dale).