I'm wondering what the story is going to be like, given how it started.
I remember when this was first announced as "Nottingham". And it was going to be a much different look at the legend, with Russell Crowe playing a more sympathetic Sheriff of Nottingham, trying to keep the peace with this band of anarchist archers mucking around in the woods.
Then we started to hear rumours Crowe was playing both Robin Hood and the Sheriff (?)
Now it looks like he's just Robin Hood. Has this project been pummeled into being something more conventional, from where it started?
Not sure about the casting at all myself, TBH. Sure, Russell Crowe and cate Blanchett can act, but I'm not at all convinced they're right for these parts, and I've honestly never heard of Danny Huston, or most of the others (Oscar Isaac, Matthew Macfadyen, Kevin Durand, etc.). In fact looking at the cast, I don't think there's many on that list who are right for the role, except perhaps Max von Sydow and Mark Addy.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Cate Blanchett could pull off any role with aplomb as she's probably the best actress around IMO, but I can think of others who would probably fit the role better. (Eva Green and Gabrielle Anwar both spring to mind)
If it were down to me, in an ideal world, I'd have had Ray Stevenson as Little John, Sean Bean as the Sheriff (Even though Hollywood always making him a bad guy IS getting extremely old), Ewan McGregor as King Richard, Kevin McKidd as Will Scarlet, and probably either Joaquin Phoenix or James Purefoy as Prince John.
As for Robin, there's not really many big-name actors that'd be right for it (Lots of relatively unknowns and British TV actors, but then there's no marketing appeal outside the UK). I certainly wouldn't cast Russell Crowe. Good as he is, he's not Robin Hood, (and despite what a surprising number of Yanks seem to believe, Australian and Nottinghamshire accents aren't remotely similar).
Orlando Bloom could definitely get the job done, but could anyone see past Legolas, Balian, Paris and that annoying bloke in Pirates? I doubt it...
As for Johnny Depp, great actor, but just so wrong for the part.
Viggo Mortensen and Eric Bana would both be great, I'm sure, but don't have the marketing appeal. Christian Bale comes out the overall winner in my book though: Not quite as good as bana or Mortensen, but he'd bring in the punters.
Then again, Crowe's not Costner, so at least that's something of a step up, just so long as Ridley remember's the tights should be Lincoln Graine (scarlet) and not Lincoln Green 😉
Well, that's my half-groat 😛
I meant Orlando could pull it off in so much as 'he's British and likes stabbing/shooting people in movies' but yeah, his acting does kind of suck, though he wouldn't actually need to do much acting seeing as he's essentially played Robin Hood at least 8 times before.
TBH for me the biggest negative in KOH was it's utter lack of any historical accuracy.
I do like Eva Green as an actress, and she's not bad to look at either 😉
😮💨 Well,Just finished watching this 20 minutes ago,I really enjoyed it,I think the scenery was fantastic and it was nice and fresh to see a more realistic kind of Robin Hood,The Battle scenes were decent and the movie definitely kept me entertained,I would of liked to have seen more chemistry between Robin Hood and lady marian,The love growing between them 2 just didn't get enough screen-time I felt,made that angle of the movie feel a little rushed,but it still worked reasonably well,only real gripe that I have with this movie is the ending did not feel complete,It made this movie feel like the start of a trilogy or a movie that desperately needs a sequel to close it,Which is why I really hope that Ridley and Crowe will give us one,It was great to see the origin of how Robin became Robin Hood,but now we need a movie too see him in full swing as the outlaw Robin Hood. All in all I give this an 8.5/10