Have we grown weary of the delightful aspects of the Robin Hood legend? Is witty dialogue no longer permitted? Are Robin and Marion no longer allowed to engage in a spirited flirtation? Must their relationship seem like high-level sexual negotiations? How many people need to be covered in boiling oil for Robin Hood's story to be told these days? How many parents will be misled by the film's PG-13 rating? Must children go directly from animated dragons to skewering and decapitation, with no interval of cheerful storytelling? No wonder Russell Crowe, who plays the renowned bandit hero in Scott's big fat mess of an epic, looks so cranky and numbed-out Robin Hood movie. Robin Hood isn't merely misguided, or overly ambitious, or excessively laden with special effects Robin Hood movie. Its problems are much bigger than that: The picture is simply oppressive in its blandness, a lumbering symbol of everything that's wrong with big-budget moviemaking these days Robin Hood movie. Reportedly, Scott may have spent as much as $237 million on this dreary parade float of a movie, but why quibble about the actual amount? The real outrage is that the dollar signs don't even show Robin Hood movie. Cinematographer John Mathieson, using a palette of dank mud greens and grays, seems to be going for kitchen-sink medievalism, and in the process gives us the ugliest England imaginable, a country hardly worth saving Robin Hood movie. The picture's numerous battle sequences are cluttered and imprecise, but worse than that, they're just plain ugly - their most exciting visual elements are flying mud and a jumble of horses' hooves Robin Hood movie. And the story - set in the days before Robin Hood started robbing from the rich and giving to the poor - is all mechanics and no drama. Brian Helgeland's screenplay (from a story by Helgeland, Ethan Reiff, and Cyrus Voris) is needlessly complicated Robin Hood movie. The filmmakers obviously think murkiness and unnecessary digressions are the same as depth Robin Hood movie. What's it all about? The plot is a series of serendipitous moments meant to build a sense of momentous destiny, but, in fact, they engender confusionand eventually apathy Robin Hood movie. Crowe plays Robin Longstride, a longbowman in the army of Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston, showing more personality than our hero), returning home from the Crusades and indulging in much pillaging of French fortresses along the way Robin Hood movie. An errant crossbow bolt, empty coin purses, a treacherous ambush in a forest and a dying man's wish conspire to bring Robin and his companions to Nottingham and Loxley Hall Robin Hood movie. And then his shameless tyranny and corruption is soon usurped by the underhand tyranny and corruption of multilingual turncoat Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong) Robin Hood movie.