There was a lot of chaos as far as the creation of this movie was concerned over the last couple of years. First they said it would be from Nottingham's point of view, then that Crowe would play both the Sheriff and Robin. Did it turn into just another Robin Hood film with a staff fight across a creek and playing pranks on the Sheriff? Not quite.

Let's start with the cast. It's excellent. Who would have thought we would ever see Kevin "Lost's Keamy" Durand in a role of a good guy? Well, here he's Little John. And while Robin's accomplices do not have such a big role they are well picked (Scott "E.R." Grimes is Will, Mark "soon Robert Baratheon" Addy is Tuck). Cate Blanchett is outstanding as always, her Marian is much closer to Eowyn than to the character's former incarnations. Matthew Macfadyen has the ungrateful job of being the Sheriff after Alan Rickman, but makes the best of the few scenes he has. Mark "Kick-Ass" Strong, villain of the hour as it seems, adds another diabolic badass to his list of characters. Newcomer Oscar Isaac is wonderfully slimy and untrustworthy as Prince John. Then there are also Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Danny Huston, fine names all around. Russel Crowe is just himself, but that works great.

The film should actually be called "Robin of Loxley" or "Robin Hood Begins". People should not expect to see him going through Sherwood forest, giving Nottingham a hard time. This is the story before all that. There are many more levels to this, a lot of court intrigues, treason, great battle scenes at the beginning and end of the film, some dots of humor and, of course, romance. One of the most outstanding features of the film is that it actually feels medieval. There is hardly any CGI used and that shows. The atmosphere feels realistic, people spit while they talk and getting out of their armor (which is making a lot of noise while you are walking) can be quite challenging. The cinematography is gorgeous, sometimes even breathtaking, the soundtrack fitting and really nice.

The film is two hours 30 minutes long but never feels like it, it flows pretty well. By the time the beautifully animated end credits are rolling you really wish to stay with Robin and his men for a little longer and get to see the parts of the story we all know from so many films. It's yelling "Sequel" pretty loudly. That's probably not the worst thing to say about a film.
Oh, and after the first few minutes I did not think of Gladiator even once anymore.

8 out of 10 crowns.