Film Preview: Robin Hood (2018)

Page Revisions:

(May 6, 2018) Original
(July 22, 2018) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#4-#10)
(October 7, 2018) New Trailer (#3)
(November 18, 2018) New Posters (#11-#18)

Release Date:

November 21, 2018

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton) a war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander (Jamie Foxx) mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown in a thrilling action-adventure packed with gritty battlefield exploits, mind-blowing fight choreography, and a timeless romance.”

Poster Rating: D (2) / B+ / B- / B (6) / B- / B- / C / C+ (5)

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Review: (#1 & #2) This pair of character posters are dull. Close-ups have their use, but not in poster design. (#3) While there’s something of a cheese element to this, it’s also clever, Robin Hood was the king of his tribe hiding in the forest and making that forest out of his trademark arrows is a fitting design choice.

(#4) Arrows forming the symbol of Robin. Not the comic book sidekick but the English legend. Of course, you could be forgiven for making that mistake. (#5-#10) This series of character posters don’t have enough individual distinctiveness to be interesting. They are well designed and there are background details to avoid everything looking rather plain, but that’s not terribly helpful.

(#11) There are a lot of design elements here, but none of them are particularly strong. Matter of fact, it’s almost too visually comparable to the design for The Hunger Games, which suggests a poor attempt to remind the viewer of that. (#12) Lots of detail, but none of it particularly inventive or compelling. (#13) With that background and the attempt at creating action excitement, this poster feels surprisingly stilted and lifeless. (#14-#18) This series of character posters borrows the motif of design #11 without feeling sufficiently distinctive from one another.

Trailer Rating: D+ / C / C+

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Review: (#1) Parts of the trailer make this look like it’s set at the time the Robin Hood mythology fits; however, as it progresses, the modernist costume design waves that impression away and it looks like someone’s trying, in vain, to conjure up memories of Guy Ritchie, borrowing from the concepts of his Sherlock Holmes action films and his period-set King Arthur debacle. That’s not a favorable comparison.

(#2) The first trailer tried to play a humorous hand with its subject matter. The second trailer focuses in on the action. Neither approach has been great, but this second trailer does a far better job encouraging people to check it out in the theater.

(#3) This film looks less like something that benefits from its myriad talents and exists more to thrill audiences. There’s nothing wrong with that type of film, but feeling derivative or pointless certainly doesn’t give the film relevance or necessity.