Robin Hood - The Story Behind the Legend

This requires a little explanation, doesn't it? I don't usually read the novelizations of terrible movies. And, although I haven't seen it, I can say with confidence that this was a terrible movie.

When I was a kid, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves came out, and I desperately wanted to see it. My mom disapproved, because she thought it was too violent. (She was probably right, but I don't really remember the timeline all that well.) So I picked up the novelization instead.

I LOVED that book. It was funny, it was exciting, and it wasn't too big a deviation on the standard Robin Hood fare that I loved so well. I probably read it a dozen times. And then somehow or other I finally managed to get my hands on the actual movie, and it was kind of a show more letdown. The acting was pretty terrible, the characters weren't nearly as well-developed, and they didn't even include all of my favorite lines.

So when I passed this in the library, I had to get it. Even if the movie was terrible, the novelization might be fun - I mean, hey, it'd happened before, right? Once I got it home, though, I knew I was in trouble when the acknowledgements thank the author's family for putting up with him while he "worked at breakneck speed to get this done."

To be fair, it's no worse than serviceable. The actual writing is fine, and I would not shy away from any of the author's original works based on this. It's just... well, the movie must have really been terrible, because there's just no redeeming value here. The characters are one-dimensional, the dialogue is pretty much terrible, and the villains are frothing puppy-kickers with no real motivation. show less

I did not see this movie but being a fan of Robin Hood stories I brought this book home and let it sit around for several years. Finally read it and was quite surprised -- good story, moved along at a nice pace (meaning I wasn't in a hurry to get it over with or worse, put it down and never finish it because I do that now if I don't like a book) -- maybe not seeing the movie was the better way for reading this novel.

You know what they say, "The book is better than the movie" this is not the case with this one. I really liked the movie but this book just was all kinds of boring to me. It just seemed to drag on and on and on. I have WAY TOO MANY book the slug through one.