The Adventures of Maid Marian

It's a shame about all the hassle.

The costumes aren't bad at all, and the forest setting fits.

But then you hear the dialogues, see the bad staging and the weak actors.

Thinking about this afterwards made me feel nostalgic. Like it would be the kind of story we'd peform as kids in the woods if we had a budget, and real swords and armour - and that's where the charm of the film is. The film makers and cast obviously had a blast making this and their passion shines through. Sure it's low budget but they squeeze every penny and put it on screen. Sophie Craig is a delight as Marian; equally bad-ass as she is vulnerable. And it's Marian's own story; it's not a carbon copy of Robin Hood, it's a Maid Marian film, and there is so much room for more. Sequel please! I want to see more.

Sophie Craig did her best, but was surrounded by people who seemed to have no intent to put any effort into telling the story or reciting their lines. Everyone was very clean, which seems inappropriate considering the era depicted. Very poor staging and directing and editing. The supposed historic sites were presumably chosen because they were cheap, not because they depict the relevant era. Kirklees Priory was represented by a church, without any of the necessary residential quarters nor protective walls there would have been to help keep the Nuns safe. It was shown in long shot atop a hill, but on site it clearly was not so placed and had a tarmacked road outside the gate in the hedge. The ruined building at 16 minutes into the film clearly has C20th housing in the middle distance - did no-one even try to edit the images? The story then took a downhill turn.

I gave up after half an hour.

Nice to see a woman lead who is competent in fighting and who rescues the damsel in distress (Robin). Bravo.

But this is an overtly amateur production for a number of reasons.

1. Clothes are too new and unused.

2. Marian wears overt makeup - in AD1199 - after being in an abbey for 3 years. Yeah.. she hid her mascara in her habit so the abbess wouldn't shout at her, I assume.

3. Huts etc look too new and unused. Three years, they need to be dusty and/or dirty etc.

4. Weapons etc generally do not draw blood or kill, even sword slashes etc. Only one wound seems to draw blood.

5. Robin survives too many wounds to be believable. He'd most likely be killed by any of them, within minutes.

6. The characters are generally incompetent in battle except Marian, and only, right at the end, does she turn it around and become a more superhero-like character. However, given that Robin has spent 3 years in battle and he survived, how can he be THIS helpless? I get that they want the movie to be about her, and make the woman the hero, but objectively, he should not be that clean shaven and pretty and ineffectual. He should at least be able to fight if he didn't die after 3 years crusading.

7. The sound of a crowd cheering at the "Execution" scene is weird given that there are like 10 people in attendance and that Robin is still known as a hero of the people.

8. No idea who most of the baddies are, or why they want to kill Robin, except Sheriff of Nottingham, who we know wants to kill him. E.g. The weird bishop guy, the Sheriff's flunky, his lieutenant guy with the beard, - all of them need some backstory to explain why, in the absence of the Sheriff, they still have it in for Robin, and why they hold off murder when they do have plenty of opportunity.

9. Forest scenes are confusing, they feel like a horror movie or "The Village" but then switch to medieval battle. It has to do with the trees and atmospheric sounds i think. And the drone footage. But it makes it unclear what the genre is meant to be for a few seconds.

10. It opens with Marian wearing a cool superhero type uniform and being accurate in her shooting, but she doesn't go back to that level of cool till right at the end, but she doesn't break out her cool uniform more than the opening scene. Which is kinda disappointing, if you're familiar with superhero movies - you except the hero to put on their uniform again when going back into superhero mode.

11. Home alone traps? Just not very effective. Why bother if they're not effective?

I'd say do watch it, mostly to get an idea of just how used to specific styles of film you are used to, so you can see just how it can be ... er... offbalanced. Also, because finally a woman is the hero. But apart from that, it just feels like a group of friend got their iphones out and made a cool project on a low budget.

Wanted to like this but everything just kept getting poorer and poorer. Waiting patiently for the next scene and hoping it might be a little better. It never happened. I guess the budget was very low and if anyone had read any history then they'd only remembered the chapter titles. Everyone is so clean and polished, just doesn't fit. The lead tried her hardest but just couldn't carry the others as well as the script. I guess if you're really not fussy then this will fill an afternoon for you. Otherwise turn off the screen and go and make a bow and arrow, I'm sure it will be better than anything you saw in this movie.