Parents' Guide to

Robin Hood (2018)

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Sloppy, violent adventure does little for classic legend.

Movie PG-13 2018 116 minutes
Robin Hood (2018) Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 19 parent reviews

age 12+
age 18+

poor lead actor, and costumes, hairstyles incorrect for the period

action is good, Jamie Fox and F Murray excel in thus movie but lead actor is just too weak to be believed whoever did the costumes has no idea of what they should look like, totally unconvincing throughout the whole movie. the soldiers full face helmets are wrong wrong wrong ! why the Sherrif of Nottingham wears a dinner jacket is unexplained, and too many of the cast have everyday hairstyles and with so much of the movie in a Mad Max set, the producers have no idea about attempting some degree of realism let alone accuracy worth watching once only on free-to-air TV, but movie should have been so much better with just a little thought about when and where this was supposed to be set.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (19):
Kids say (18):

Whether this is the worst Robin Hood movie ever made is up for debate, but it's certainly all kinds of terrible, from the lazy writing to the crummy, confusing action scenes. The story of Robin Hood is always a good one, and it always seems especially relevant in a society's more trying times, but the shaky, sloppy, numbing mess turned in by director Otto Bathurst -- a TV veteran making his feature debut -- doesn't seem to have anything motivating it. There's no evident burning desire to delve into the story again, just to shoot lots of things with fast-paced arrows and occasionally blow stuff up.

Many versions of Robin Hood have been made over the years; the two best are arguably the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks version and the 1938 Errol Flynn version (the 1973 Disney version is a sentimental favorite). Those movies were bold, cheerful, and flamboyant. But the more recent trend in Robin Hood has moved toward a depressing griminess, more like a relentless video game adaptation than anything rousing or exciting. This film slavishly follows that trend, although it quite possibly takes itself a little less seriously than its 1991 or 2010 predecessors, which is one of its few virtues. Egerton is another; it's hard to say whether he could have shone in a good movie, but in one this bad, he comes out ahead. Let's hope that someday, someone tries again and does right by good old Robin Hood.

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