Robin Hood

Going in: I've heard this isn't that great. As always, I like Edgerton and Foxx is rarely a disappointment. I'm hoping for fun action. But I'm not sure if I'm going to.

Popcorn: 7/10. It was fun but not stellar. I wouldn't mind seeing it again, but it was pretty much testosterone candy. It wasn't bad but I don't think it'll make the top 10 list.

Art: 7/10. A decent work of art but nothing that'll win any awards.

Acting: 3/3. Joel Edgerton, Jamie Foxx, and Brian Mendelsohn. You're bound to get at least some good acting and I was pretty pleased.

Music: 2/2. There was a thematic end and the music built with it. I imagine they were trying to do something similar with Independence Day but it falls a little short.

Filming: 1/2. I didn't notice the composition of the shots too much. There some funky angles used but it emotionally confused me (granted, that doesn't take much).

Art Dept: 1/2. Okay, I almost gave a "0" but there so many things that pulled me out of the movie. Basically two elements: costuming and CGI. The horses were fake. So fake. And the costumes - I swear I saw someone wearing blue jeans and another time I thought someone else were wearing sweats. The castle sets were amazing. Hands down edges thinks to the "1" score.

Editing: 1/2. I could tell the editor was trying to make a mark here. The problem is that in some places, he marked too much in too little time. The editing effect was dizzying.

Story: 3/4. The theme of the story was pretty descent. There's a bit of a spoilery way of talking about it. But I want to avoid those. Plots tied up nicely and characters did what they were supposed to. Except one. The problem is that these types of action movies just don't make me feel anything because they're supposed to be brain candy.

Directing: 2/3. It's a decent movie but I felt like the editing and CGI got out of hand.

Production: 2/2. This was still entertaining and I enjoyed it. The approach was the right approach; execution was a bit of a problem.

Orthodox thoughts (major spoilers):
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One of the concepts that you run into all the time with Robin Hood (except the Disney version) is the corrupt church. This movie is no exception. It makes sense because there was a lot of corruption that happened in the West in medieval times. People began to distrust the clergy. I'm glad they had Friar Tuck in there to balance it out. Mankind has never done well with disproportionate power.

And I think that's the takeaway: within the West, power is centralized and funneled to the top. This is true for Catholics and Protestants. In the East, it's collegiate. There's agreement on the fundamentals but large amounts of discussion on the non-fundamentals. There's permission to disagree and I believe that's because the power is distributed in a collegiate structure.

One of my favorite scenes is the interrogation between John and the Sheriff. They talk about death and faith, how having faith brings about meaning but life without faith is "freedom". That's the thing, the trap, that we have in today's society. Moral freedom doesn't mean doing whatever you want, which is anarchy. Moral freedom is being released from imprisonment or enslavement to viewpoints or ingrained behaviors that are harmful to you and others around you. In that case, very few things in life bring this kind of freedom.

And finally, the major theme in the movie is about how war goes on but with just different players. This is evident in direct dialog in the beginning and then when Wil takes over the Sheriff position. There's always a push-pull in life and in the world around us and it's always going on. Our call is to do the best with what we have.