The Death of Robin Hood
2026
🎯 Verdict
✍️ Full Review
More tranquil than Sandor Clegane's second chance and equally more savage than the return to the life of the Hound…. Legend is a legend for it passes many tongues in the vast expanse of time. Adding embellishments and subtracting the impertinent so as to make heroes out of troglodytes. Hugh Jackman's fresh albeit grimdark addition which can be considered as one of the formidable roles of his career since Bad Education (seven years too late) spins one such legend to shatter the much accustomed version of an all time legend. I can see why so much of murmurings happened with this being a parallel to Egger's The Northman and the darkness, the senseless brutality, cutthroat tribalism and a violent purpose and many other aspects here sure resemble that blood-soaked Viking tale even though for a fraction of that story but there is a stillness, a sense of haven and peace that runs for a large section of runtime here which makes it diametrically different. Plus the bloodletting, minus the amount of snow and half naked men wrestling around a bonfire. Redemption wasn't anywhere near the sight of The Northman, rather revenge was whereas it is the lifeline of The Death of Robin Hood. Amidst all the cutting, clubbing stabbing, tearing and squelching of flesh and bones, blood gargling inside the throat and getting dragged through the muck as well as the stark gloomy atmosphere, rays of humanity appears in this even within the most irredeemable soul although fleeting, flickering and however much susceptible to the randomness of ebb and flow, back and forth. The serenity and the gnarly. As the movie mentions, the balance. After a while, it becomes transparent as everything that's been laid out sort of start fitting a pattern and that's the chink in the armor. That and the gratuitous nature of intense score here and there. If the many worlds theory has any leg, The Death of Robin Hood must be the Robin Hood version Ridley Scott would have made somewhere in the eternal inflationary universe. Plus the English and Scottish songs in the background. Anyway, whatever hole in the legacy of Scott that's since the reach of 2008 appeared, Michael Sarnoski is here to fill that and intends to carry on that legacy. There is even the similar usage of dull bleak colors of blueish hue and amber as it has been the trademarks of one director once majored in movies often portraying medieval wars comprising heroes of sprawling empires. And of course, effects-heavy battles consist of cavalry which is not this film's style.