It’s impossible to watch The Death of Robin Hood and not think of Logan. Both films star Hugh Jackman, and both mar his leading-man good looks with old age makeup, scars, and mangy facial hair. In each, he plays an anti-hero whose legend is one of noble heroism but whose reality is a trail of senseless carnage. And in both, his withered humanity is revived by protecting an orphaned girl. In this comparison, The Death of Robin Hood only suffers.
A24’s ‘The Death of Robin Hood’ trailer teases a dark spin on the classic tale
Logan co-writer and director James Mangold created an emotionally rich drama, punctuated by breathtaking action sequences that showed new potential for superhero films viewed through a revisionist lens. The Death of Robin Hood‘s writer/director Michael Sarnoski, who has previously made the superb slow-burn thriller Pig and the awful horror prequel A Quiet Place: Day One, pursues a similar goal in re-interpreting the folk legend renowned for robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. But his interpretation lacks complexity, offering in its place much brooding, after a first act overstuffed with truly repulsive onscreen violence.
There is an attempt at balance, as Sarnoski introduces female characters meant to be a soft and compassionate foil to Robin and his not-so-merry men’s brutality. But that feels frustratingly reductive and shallow.
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