Merlin

Rating:
Summary: Dismal. Never has a film been so pretentiously named.
Review: Not so much one bad movie as three or four bad movies haphazardly stuck together, Merlin lurches from one embarrassing and baffling scene to the next. Terrible dialogue, bad acting, laughably inappropriate theme music, and a special effects department that thinks that enough fog can make anything look good (they're wrong). Gee, how could one possibly resist this?

Rating:
Summary: Merlin
Review: I thought this movie was quite good, but it could have used some fine-tuning. They should have worked a bit more on the acting, which was cheesy in parts, but the special effects were great. I would recomend this to anyone who is a fan of Arthurian legends, but if you are new to the the stories of Merlin and Arthur you should probably wait on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Unexpectedly excellent
Review: I don't understand the level of dislike expressed by other viewers about this project. I didn't expect anything and found it to be consistently good throughout. The acting, particularly by the criminally-underrated Miranda Richardson, is truly outstanding, the effects are quite impressive, and the story never loses its grip. Sure, it's not everyone's cup of tea but if you like Arthurian legends, I think you'll find it wonderful if not flawless.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderul fantasy adventure.
Review: Solid direction, great performances, fabulous musical score by Trevor Jones, and a solid story core. What more needs to be said?? One of the best made-for-TV movies I've ever seen!

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't measure up to the standards set by Excalibur.
Review: With the countless number of films available covering the Arthurian genre, it doesn't make it any easier that another one tries to join the ranks where the high standards set by Excalibur back in 1981 is often unreachable. `Merlin' is nowhere near that summit, nor is it even average by comparison. At best, it is a modest film that was hastily produced. This is most evident in the problems concerning the erratic special effects, which should not have been overlooked. The producers also faced the difficulty of having to cast so many high-priced actors, forcing the screenplay to be written around their busy schedules with not much time left for fine-tuning. As a result there is very little character development and chemistry between the actors, and the cohesiveness from one scene to the next is almost non-existent. These unfortunate circumstances has until recently earned `Merlin' the dubious distinction of being the lowest rated American network TV mini-series of all time (10th Kingdom now bears that honor)... which goes to show that people are more interested in a story rather than the billings.

Rating:
Summary: "The Most Magical Adventure Of All Time". I think not.
Review: Despite such a pretentious blurb on the DVD packaging, "Merlin" is just another installment of how business is usually done in Hollywood. Forget the inane plot, and the horrible acting. No need to worry about the poor production, or the erroneous facts and distorted historical events (see U-571) plagued throughout the film. Just take the biggest names in the entertainment industry that money can buy, put them together on the same set, and direct them to speak and act like marionettes. Then run the cels through a Pentium III using Photoshop and Director 7.0, and quoila!- you have "Merlin", a multi-million dollar fiasco with shallow characters, a ridiculous plot, sloppy special effects, and a silly horse that sounds too much like Mr. Ed(is this supposed to be joke, or what? ). Even Disney would've taken better care to notice that when large pieces of stone collapse they are supposed to tumble downhill, not vanish into the bluescreen. "Merlin" is less of a movie than it is a collection of outtakes from Excalibur", an excellent film which I would highly recommend for anyone to go and see. Finally... Since Amazon does not accept 0 stars, I am hereby forced to give this mess of a reel a generous rating of 1 star.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it
Review: This movie was great. It put the light on one the backbone of Arthur. I have always been interesting in the Legend of Aruther and Camelot, but I never really thought of Merlin as anything, but a wizard that helped Arthur. When I saw the movie(it was on DVD,and it is much better on DVD, then VHS. In the video, they cut 42 mins out of it!), I didn't expect much. But soon, I got caught in the plot of Merlin and his passionate life. I loved the story of his road to freedom, out of Mabs, and how he learns so much more then anyone else did. The end is great, when all hope seems to be lost, you see what true love is, through the eys of a wizard. I really encourage to see this movie, but you should also read the books, by James Mawlory (I think thats his name) they are called

Merlin: The Old Magic Merlin:The Kings Wizard and Merlin:The End I Magic

I don't think you will be sorry!

Rating:
Summary: All hype, no substance.
Review: Not made out as what it was expensively hyped-up to be. Special effects junkies may get something out of this film, but I found it long, very boring and totally unmoving. The charters in general were shallow and one-dimensional; none of the main characters were in the slightest bit likeable, and the film's potential was ruined by the extremely silly and totally fabricated central story of the "upstairs/downstairs" romance between Merlin and Maeve. This totally implausible bit of the plot succeeds in turning this tale of magic and chivalry into just another trite Hollywoodisation in which only beautiful people and thwarted love count for much. Such a shame - given the beautiful settings, it could have been a good film.......

Rating:
Summary: Too overrated.
Review: I really can't understand how this movie ever saw the day of light. There was all this advertised hoopla on NBC about how great it was, but it was just three hours of my life I want back. The love story was pointless and just plain annoying. The only decent part is when the credits start to roll at the start and end of the film. I would much rather watch a documentary about Merlin than to ever watch this movie again. This is one of the the few films about King Arthur and Merlin that I would least recommend anyone seeing. My Score: 1 out of 5

Rating:
Summary: Shrinking Camelot
Review: I have mixed feelings about this film.

On one hand it was about as serious a piece of fantasy to come out of Hollywood since the superiour film, Excalibur. The dragon scene alone was worth the price of admission. The story of Merlin growing up was moving and Maub was a terrific character. While I recommend the film, there are 2 major problems: 1) I wish Merlin had been moved to aid in the creation of Camelot for positive reasons, rather than simply a rejection of the past; 2) the dimunition of the Arthurian characters. Excalibur instills the viewer with a sense of awe with regard to all characters without diminishing Merlin. This film makes the great Arthurian characters small and trivial. They deserve much, much better.

Example: The love of Lancelot for Guenevere is typically viewed as a story of passion on par with Antony and Cleopatra... passion overruling virtue. In this film, it is simply caused by a spell cast by Maub to incite trouble. Merlin himself dismisses the nobelest of knights, Lancelot, as someone who, "never got anything right."

It is still worth seeing.