The Uprising (UK/Germany/USA, 2026)

When you make a movie like this well, it turns out something like Braveheart. When you make it poorly, you get The Uprising. Loosely based on the 1381 so-called "Peasants' Revolt" in England, the film purports to tell how three men – the unnamed Ploughman (Andrew Garfield), an excommunicated priest named John Ball (Jamie Bell), and a soldier, Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis) – nearly bring King Richard II (Woody Norman) to heel and threaten many of his closest advisers (including Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander,  and Jonny Lee Miller). Unfortunately, for reasons known only to him, writer/director Paul Greengrass wasn't overly concerned with the strict historical record and elected to make some embellishments. Not only does he veer considerably from the accepted chronology of events, but he conflates this factual uprising with a fictitious "origin" story for Robin Hood. (The Robin Hood connection, which has been revealed in pre-release publicity materials and even an alternative title, isn't evident within the actual movie until the epilogue.) 

Admittedly, it's fair to wonder how much storytelling potential the underlying narrative has, at least for a theatrical release as opposed to something long-form like a streaming series. However, shoehorning in the Robin Hood element doesn't seem like the best way to enliven the proceedings, especially since it's hidden from the audience for 90% of the runtime and the reveal doesn't exactly send shivers up the spine. (It's also not explicit, so it could easily be missed altogether.) 

Stylistically, this is a case of Greengrass succumbing to his worst instincts. Throughout his career, he has been enamored of handheld shots. There have been times when this has worked to a movie's advantage, creating a sense of unparalleled immediacy. On other occasions, it has combined with frenetic editing to create a mishmash of chaotic and incoherent action scenes. The Uprising is replete with these. Worse still, even some of the non-action scenes can be hard to digest because of the shaky-cam aesthetic. The visuals actively impeded my ability to absorb the dialogue. There's too much heavy lifting. As for the fights, the best approach is to wait until they're over and see who's left standing. 

Character development is nonexistent, which limits audience engagement. Andrew Garfield's Ploughman has two personality pillars: grief (his family was wiped out by the Black Death) and righteous anger (about excessive taxation). But there's no real arc for him; he remains largely static throughout. The same is true of the various hangers-on and allies who join him in his anti-government crusade. They are all paper-thin. We never feel much for these largely anonymous, one-dimensional individuals. Nor is this limited to the protagonists. The villains are more unlikable than detestable, and even the king comes across as simply petulant. 

On a high level, the story is reasonably straightforward – three heroic figures lead a mass of like-minded peasants in a march on London, seeking to urge the young king to accede to their demands while his army is far from home. But many of the details and motivations are opaque, making the movie seem more confusing than it should be. For example, there's a scene in which a betrayal happens, but there's no explanation for why the other characters remain oblivious to it. And that's not an isolated incident. There are a lot of times when basic things like character placement just don't make sense. This could be a structural problem. It could be a choreography problem. It could be an editing problem. Regardless, the key word is "problem." The underlying cause isn't germane. 

Greengrass is one of those directors whose body of work speaks for itself. He is an underrated but consistently good filmmaker, and his best movies, like United 93 and Captain Phillips, are deserving of more praise than they have gotten. But The Uprising is among his least successful, and a case could be made that it sits at the absolute nadir of his filmography. It's two hours of headache-inducing handheld camera movements telling a story that seems to be missing far too much connective tissue. Not exactly a reason to rise up and go to a movie theater.

The Uprising (UK/Germany/USA, 2026)