Robin Hood (Unrated Director’s Cut) (156 minutes; 2010)

Written by Brian Helgeland. Directed by Ridley Scott.

What is it?

What it is, is a criminally underrated film.

Maybe it would’ve been more successful if they had titled it Robin Hood Begins.

Another option, though it probably wouldn’t have helped at the box office, is Kingdom of Heaven II.

Because it is both of those things, and more.

It’s a backdoor sequel to Kingdom of Heaven. That movie ended with Richard the Lionheart stopping by Orlando Bloom’s village in France, on his way to Crusade in the Holy Land. This film begins with Richard on his way back home.

And it maintains the primary theme of that film, which is that what makes a man a man is not what organization he is affiliated with or what title he bears, but what he chooses to do every day.

It’s also an origin story for Robin Hood. Essentially, it’s a prequel to every other Robin Hood movie. It begins with him serving in Richard’s army, and follows him right up to the very moment he’s declared an outlaw by King John.

The cast is spectacularly good. Mark Strong is ideal for a medieval English villain. Galadriel is a beautiful Maid Marian who is also strong and smart and tough. Lea Seydoux, of the last two James Bond films, is a radiant French princess. Oscar Isaac is always good in everything but is enjoyably evil here as Prince John. The main Merry Men are cool but never get anywhere near enough to do. A young Matthew McFadyen makes a fine, evil sheriff of Nottingham – though he, too, barely appears in the film.

William Hurt plays a completely useless character who takes up precious run time that could’ve been given to Little John or the Sheriff. He spends a lot of time looking on in disappointment at Prince John’s missteps, but does nothing.

Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood here is hard as nails, incredibly competent and confident, a natural leader and a charismatic force.

I love that this version of Robin Hood is an impostor. He’s not Robin of Loxley. He’s a guy who finds Robin of Loxley being ambushed in the French forest and takes his place. And his identity.

Yes, Robin of Loxley becomes the first victim of identity theft.

It’s a fine movie overall, as long as you understand what you’re getting and what you’re not getting. There should’ve been a sequel that actually showed the adventures of Robin Hood and the Merry Men now that they’re established as outlaws. One was planned, anyway, but never filmed. Lacking that, the film fails to deliver what audiences could reasonably expect. In addition, the ending is something of a downer, though it does leave the door wide open for further adventures by Robin Hood, as well as establishing a need for those adventures to happen.

Noteworthy

This movie did not do well among critics or at the box office.

It brought in just under $322 million worldwide – not a disaster, but not a big hit, either.

Its Rotten Tomatoes score is just 43%. Critics praised its production values and acting, but simply didn’t find it very much fun.

A good comparison might be found in the Western genre, and particularly in Wyatt Earp movies. Tombstone is bold and colorful and fun, while Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp is probably more true to actual history, but is also more somber, serious and flat.

Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood has more in common with Costner’s Earp movie than with Tombstone.

I suspect audiences were disappointed because they expected some version of Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie (1991), which was silly and cartoonish but also more fun.

Or perhaps Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) raised the bar (and set audience expectations) too high, decades ago.

If you’re looking for Robin and his Merry Men chasing the Sheriff of Nottingham through Sherwood Forest while robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, well, I have to tell you – this is not that movie. Not at all.

This is a movie about commoners with uncommon valor rising up and taking the place of noblemen at first by pretending to be them, and then through their deeds and their actions.

And it’s about one extremely arrogant and stubborn jerk who happens to inherit the crown of England.

In 2026, Russell Crowe noted that the original plan was to make three films, continuing into the better-known Robin Hood material. Unfortunately, this one didn’t meet the financial number necessary to trigger the sequels.

Quick and Dirty Summary

Russell Crowe and his pals are archers fighting their way across France alongside King Richard the Lionheart, on their way back to England from the Crusades.

Crowe and Company get fed up with Richard’s vanity and his endless battles. They decide to desert and go home. At the same moment, Richard is killed in battle.

When Robin of Loxley is killed in an ambush while trying to bring Richard’s crown home, Crowe and his men take up the task, impersonating noblemen in the process.

Once back in England, they get caught up in the brewing civil war surrounding Prince John. Meanwhile, Crowe’s character, pretending to be Robin, meets and becomes involved with Maid Marian.

There are also a number of very good moments in which the scenery-chewing Oscar Isaac preens about while ignoring his wife and mother and sleeping with a beautiful French princess (Seydoux).

This all sounds very Robin Hood-ish. But then we are served up an entirely separate plot involving Sir Godfrey (Strong), a traitor who’s helping the French king invade England.

Eventually Crowe’s character – I honestly don’t know what to call him; he’s not really Robin of Loxley and he’s not “Robin Hood” yet, instead going by “Robin Longstride” — reconciles with King John long enough to repulse the French invasion. But John being John, the situation reverts quickly afterward. The movie ends right where we expect the Robin Hood story to begin. Indeed, the last words we see on the screen before the credits roll are, “And so the legend begins.”

Fantasy/SF/Sword & Sorcery Elements

As one might expect, the weapons that feature in this film are bows and arrows.

A crossbow bolt through the neck kills Richard in much the same way it killed the big German Crusader early in Kingdom of Heaven.

Robin Whateverhisnameis gets a few opportunities to show off his archery skills – but not many. Not nearly enough for a film about allegedly one of the greatest archers to ever string a bow.

High Point

The best portion of the film is probably when Robin decides to impersonate the slain Loxley. Suddenly he and the handful of Merry-Men-to-be traveling with him morph into “heist film” characters. Robin’s Eleven.

And speaking of stealing, of course Isaac as the deluded King John steals every scene he’s in, often just with his facial expressions.

Low Point

There’s a long segment in the middle of the film where Robin and company have settled into Marian’s farm, and then not a lot happens that’s very exciting. We do get some fun appearances here by the great Max von Sydow as Sir Walter Loxley, the father of the man Crowe is impersonating. What’s a Medieval action film without von Sydow??

But beyond him, it’s a pretty dry middle of the movie, and it’s easy for audiences to tune out during this section.

Standout Performance

There are several good performances, but I’d argue that Oscar Isaac as the ridiculously evil and treacherous Prince/King John takes the cake. He’s the “Hans Gruber” of this movie. Yippee-ki-yay, Robin Hooder!

Overall Evaluation as a Movie and as Fantasy/SF/Sword & Sorcery

It’s not precisely a Sword & Sorcery movie per se, but it is S&S-adjacent, featuring a mythical main character who is essentially a Fantasy hero.

It’s a very creditable unofficial sequel to Kingdom of Heaven, by the same director and featuring some of the same supporting actors.

And while it has its slow sections and doesn’t really give us the Robin Hood we probably went into it looking for, it does give us a very fine Medieval warfare and intrigue movie, as well as the prequel to the actual Robin Hood story we never knew we needed.

Put that in yer Magna Carta, ya bastards!

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Van Allen Plexico once edited an anthology of tales set in a Thundarr-style post-apocalyptic future of super-science and sorcery, called Blackthorne: Thunder on Mars. He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a Grand Master of Pulp Literature (2025 class) and a multiple-award-winning author of more than two dozen novels and anthologies, ranging from space opera to Kaiju to crime fiction to superheroes to military SF. Find his works on Amazon and at www dot Plexico dot net.