Robin Hood

**1/2 stars

In Robin Hood’s case, he should be honored that Sir Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe, and company would tell his life story. In Robin Hood the movie’s case, consider itself lucky that it’s one of the only few offerings this summer that is neither 3-D or a sequel. Because while it is an adaptation of a famous story, the sole compliment I can give is that the good manages to outweigh the bad. Like Iron Man 2, I guess in this day and age it’s the best you can hope for.

And that’s too bad, considering the enormous talent behind this $200 million epic. Russell Crowe is in full Gladiator mode as the legendary hero, shuffling between accents that tend to remind the audience of the genre’s glory days. The film begins in the crusades, as Robin and his mismatched group of musketeers fight with King Richard. After the King’s death, he takes to himself to find his own destiny. He heads off to Nottingham to discover his family history and to rediscover whatever life he has left.

Enter Maid Marian, played with witty experience by Cate Blanchett. However, this is not the Maid Marian we’ve come to know. Blanchett plays her as if she belongs in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. While it’s certainly a refreshing characteristic over a helpless woman, it would have been to nice to have more sensibility to the lead character’s relationship, rather than continuously acting all noble, noble, noble.

This Robin Hood is more of a prequel than an origin story, and more of a gritty action picture than a soaring epic. I suspect audiences will leave the theater wondering if they saw a version of Robin Hood or a generic Crusade epic from the director of Gladiator. This Robin Hood hardly steals from the rich and gives to the poor, and relies heavily on action sequences. I never hated Robin Hood. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. But in order to be called an accomplishment, the film is missing a key attribute: memorable.

Iron Man 2

*** stars

In this day and age of blockbusters, coming out of a comic-book sequel feeling as though the good outweighed the bad is probably the best you could ask for. That is what Jon Favreau’s sequel to the 2008 critical and commercial smash, Iron Man 2, delivers.

The still newly A-lister Robert Downey Jr. takes the rubble off the film’s rustic action overtones and creates an unavoidable charm in the eccentric Tony Stark. This time around, Stark has successfully privatized world peace with Iron Man, but is facing pressure to turn over the Iron Man suit technology to the United States Government. Stark refuses, and continues to get off on the rush of the superhero. Still in love with him but hates him at the same time Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) has been named CEO of Stark Industries under Stark’s supervision.

Tony is having trouble keeping the single act going, and his friend Lt. Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes (Don Cheadle, taking over Terrence Howard’s role) has decided to take things into his own hands. He takes the suit from Stark and brings it to the government. Now Stark is facing pressure from everyone, including a Russian scientist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who claims that Stark was responsible for the death of his father (and some other mass murderer mumbo jumbo).

Iron Man 2 is all play and barely any work. There is hardly a moment of dullness, but it is hard not to spot the elephant in the room that is the mediocrity in the film’s risk-taking. Favreau and company play it safe and deliver what they know will sell. While that is all find and dandy, it would have been nice if they kept it to one person. Downey’s Tony Stark is the most interesting character in the marvel universe. In fact, he’s the only one that outshines his superhero. Whenever he’s putting the suit on, it’s as though the anticipation is more about when he will take it off than what he will actually do with it.

Same goes for the new rush of characters. Scarlett Johansson is beautiful as Stark’s new assistant Natalie Rushman, Sam Rockwell is fitting as Stark’s rival Justin Hammer, and Samuel L. Jackson provides his own presence as Nick Fury, whose first priority is to remind the audience that an Avengers movie will be made sometime soon.

I really don’t have much negativity to talk about. Expectations have been met and its $128 million opening weekend has solidified its supporters. While I can’t say it’s the movie of the summer, when Stark says, “It’s good to be back,” it’s hard not to agree with him.