Beyond Sherwood Forest is set during the year 1174 in England as King Richard is way fighting the Crusade, his brother Prince John (David Richmond-Peck) has been left in charge. In order to further international diplomatic relations with Norway the beautiful young Maid Marian (Erica Durance) is to be married of to some Prince, an idea on which Marian is not keen & runs away deep into Sherwood Forest where legendary thief Robin Hood (Robin Dunne) lives with his men who steal from the rich to give to the poor. Prince John is annoyed on both counts & orders Malcolm (Julian Sands) the Sheriff of Nottingham to find & hang Hood in a public display of power, Malcolm uses a cursed girl who can change into a ferocious Dragon to find Hood. Robin sets out on a quest to the Dark Woods to find a cure for the girl & stop her turning into a Dragon while trying to protect his friends & Maid Marian...
Also known under the title Robin Hood: Beyond Sherwood (I saw it under that title) this Canadian production was directed by Peter DeLuise & is watchable Sci-Fi Channel fare but ultimately not that good. The biggest draw about Beyond Sherwood Forest is that it features the fictional British outlaw Robin Hood & gives the story a Lord of the Rings make over with Wizards, Dark Woods (so-called because they are woods & they are always dark...) & a huge Dragon. This whole film is fantasy, Robin Hood is as much fiction as any Dragon in any film & why the character of Robin was used her is a mystery, even more so considering the title was changed to Beyond Sherwood Forest & makes no mention of Robin Hood. At 90 odd minutes it feels longer, there's not much going on here & there's the typical romance between Robin & Marian, there's the bad guy, there's a few sword fights, a few arrows are fired & not that much else happens really. It's all rather bland & forgettable, it's watchable in a silly way but nothing that will stay with you for long. The mixing of adventure & fantasy has no real balance, Robin is seen stealing some money at the start but then doesn't again during the film while the Dragon seems rather random & doesn't quite sit that well alongside Robin Hood. At the end the bad guy is defeated & there's a happy ending for everyone as expected. This is maybe slightly better than the average Sci-Fi Channel creature feature but not by much.
The one thing tat did impress me about Beyond Sherwood Forest were the CGI computer effects, Sci-Fi Channel films are notorious for their awful CGI but the Dragon & growling Wolves effects are rather good all things considered. The fight scenes are bland as are the fantasy elements overall, there's just nothing here we haven't seen before & the novelty of Robin Hood appearing alongside a Dragon can only go so far before it becomes old. There's a few splashes of blood as the Dragon slashes a couple of people & rips one in half along with a ripped out heart but otherwise there's no gore here.
Filmed in Canada one forest looks much like another so it not being shot in England isn't a major problem although some of the accents are poor. I didn't recognise anyone in the cast myself apart from Julian Sands who is slumming it here.
Beyond Sherwood Forest is an OK time waster that has the gimmick of pairing notorious outlaw Robin Hood with Dragons, I've seen worse but I've seen better as well.
Also known under the title Robin Hood: Beyond Sherwood (I saw it under that title) this Canadian production was directed by Peter DeLuise & is watchable Sci-Fi Channel fare but ultimately not that good. The biggest draw about Beyond Sherwood Forest is that it features the fictional British outlaw Robin Hood & gives the story a Lord of the Rings make over with Wizards, Dark Woods (so-called because they are woods & they are always dark...) & a huge Dragon. This whole film is fantasy, Robin Hood is as much fiction as any Dragon in any film & why the character of Robin was used her is a mystery, even more so considering the title was changed to Beyond Sherwood Forest & makes no mention of Robin Hood. At 90 odd minutes it feels longer, there's not much going on here & there's the typical romance between Robin & Marian, there's the bad guy, there's a few sword fights, a few arrows are fired & not that much else happens really. It's all rather bland & forgettable, it's watchable in a silly way but nothing that will stay with you for long. The mixing of adventure & fantasy has no real balance, Robin is seen stealing some money at the start but then doesn't again during the film while the Dragon seems rather random & doesn't quite sit that well alongside Robin Hood. At the end the bad guy is defeated & there's a happy ending for everyone as expected. This is maybe slightly better than the average Sci-Fi Channel creature feature but not by much.
The one thing tat did impress me about Beyond Sherwood Forest were the CGI computer effects, Sci-Fi Channel films are notorious for their awful CGI but the Dragon & growling Wolves effects are rather good all things considered. The fight scenes are bland as are the fantasy elements overall, there's just nothing here we haven't seen before & the novelty of Robin Hood appearing alongside a Dragon can only go so far before it becomes old. There's a few splashes of blood as the Dragon slashes a couple of people & rips one in half along with a ripped out heart but otherwise there's no gore here.
Filmed in Canada one forest looks much like another so it not being shot in England isn't a major problem although some of the accents are poor. I didn't recognise anyone in the cast myself apart from Julian Sands who is slumming it here.
Beyond Sherwood Forest is an OK time waster that has the gimmick of pairing notorious outlaw Robin Hood with Dragons, I've seen worse but I've seen better as well.