The Adventures of Maid Marian

Oh, have we run out of ideas? Well then, let's take an old famous story so we can skip paying any writers and lets rehash it AGAIN. Are we going to do anything original with it? Why no, of course not - why bother?

This is quite simply TERRIBLE. Whoever was involved in this, hang your heads in shame.

AVOID this boring pile of tripe. My one-star rating is for the camera person who had to film this garbage, it deserves a minus tating.

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.

It is not worth wasting your time watching it. In this way, it is clear that the producer is trying to save as much as he can from the budget. Even the performance of the actors is not convincing for the viewer, whether in dialogue or fighting scenes. Even the heroine's way of holding the arrow is clearly not convincing.

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.