I can’t remember the last time I invested time into anything relating to the Robin Hood universe, whether it be novels, movies, or TV series. Heck, it actually might be the time in elementary school when I watched the Disney animated version. You know, the one with the fox and the bear. Now, I’m sure there are a bunch of movies and series along the way since then portraying Robin Hood and how he continues to steal from the rich and give to the poor, but nothing really stood out or caught my attention. Until now.

So, in The Death of Robin Hood starring Hugh Jackman, we’re supposed to believe that decades upon decades later in life, the Robin Hood story was just a myth. The Robin Hood legend itself is just a bunch of stories glorifying his status, told and spread by none other than Robin Hood himself to ensure that the people remained by his side and to also attract fools into his fold to help do his bidding. In reality, the actual Robin Hood story itself is much more grimy, dark, and leaves out a lot of the violence, sometimes unnecessary, and carnage Robin Hood himself has laid upon the folks of the land. Violence begets violence, and so here we see Robin Hood constantly on the lookout for assassins and killers from the family members of his past victims.

Although there are a couple of reasons why I feel this movie didn’t work for me, the biggest one I can think of is that I just couldn’t give a damn about it. And no matter how hard this movie tried to, it just couldn’t persuade me otherwise. For viewers like myself who have always known Robin Hood as the outlaw who fearlessly stole from the bad rich guys and gave back to the poor, doing a complete 180 decades later and now telling a story of how the truth is much darker doesn’t exactly do it any favors. I mean, sure, we’re not naive enough to believe that everything is all rosy and sunshine when it comes to Robin Hood, but this movie just felt like it didn’t need to exist at all. I can get with the whole darker side of the Robin Hood lore angle they’re going for, but the actual movie and story itself here are painfully slow and a slog to get through.

The first quarter of the movie starts off extremely violent to highlight the whole darker side thing. But then the entire three quarters of it afterwards is just extremely slow and dull. That’s not to say that one would prefer action and violence for the entirety of the movie, but the balance felt uneven. Robin Hood, after getting seriously injured, is brought to an island by his sidekick Little John, where a prioress takes him in and tries to heal him back to health. Surprise, surprise, we learn later that Robin Hood actually killed her husband and kids in the past, and now she has the opportunity to either seek revenge or provide mercy to him. The issue here, to reiterate, is me discovering that I actually don’t care that much anymore about the Robin Hood lore/character, and that this movie isn’t good enough to make me change my mind. I’m a bit surprised they got this cast of star power, though. I couldn’t even tell that was Bill Skarsgård playing Little John. Is that a good or bad thing? Anyway, the best part of the movie obviously has to be the very ending, when Robin Hood, about to take his last breath, teaches Little Margaret how to shoot an arrow. You’re not “letting go” but more simply instead “you’re not holding on anymore.” That’s some deep shit to highlight Robin Hood’s burden and outlook of embracing his death.