Robin Hood Review: 2 Ups & 7 Downs
4. It Ruins Several Iconic Characters
If you're a huge Robin Hood fan, you're best advised to steer well clear of the movie if only because it does such a terrible service to so many of the iconic characters.
Robin Hood himself is a dullard as mentioned, but most of the supporting characters don't really fare much better.
For starters, Marion doesn't have much definition as a character beyond being the eye candy and an object for Robin and Will Tillman (Jamie Dornan) to fight over.
Tillman is meanwhile a renamed version of Will Scarlet for reasons unknown, though you'd barely know it for all the resemblance the character bears here.
Dornan's snoozy performance does nothing to aid the baffling decision to reinvent Scarlet as an aspiring politician who comes to blows with Robin.
Moreover, the resolution of Tillman's character arc is sure to leave audiences raising their eyebrows if not straight-up gut-laughing at the silliness of it all.
The only character in the movie who really feels particularly true to the legend is Tim Minchin's Friar Tuck, who while a mixed bag of comic relief, at least isn't a random try-hard attempt at needless modernisation.