Clevercell Very disappointing...

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

machei I give it the two points for being pretty and making the attempt, but the end result was just so bad when considered as a whole. The first hour had me excited that they may have gotten it right, the next had me squirming in discomfort, and the last had me sorely disappointed in a way that I haven't been since the movie adaptation of "A Prayer for Owen Meany"... and that was at least a little forgivable in that Irving had the foresight to disassociate Simon Birch with the book as much as possible.This is NOT the book. This actually insults the book pretty heavily. It might have been better if they'd called it by another name and said it was "Inspired By..." or something, because saying this is based on the book is selling a bill of goods that doesn't deliver. It is about as loosely based as one could imagine.Honestly, why can't producers make a GOOD version of the Arthurian legend? Game of Thrones has proved it could be done. But this steaming pile, along with the blandly mediocre "Excalibur" seem to suggest no one is willing to take the source material and make a great movie out of an equally great novel.I hold out hope that someone steps up and takes another crack at MZB's book--it's well worth telling right.

meritcoba "So ever read the book?" Henry asked, "Seems like the kind of book you would have read, in your days..."Kristl frowned, "My days? Sounds like I have outlived my shelf live. ""Eh.. Well I mean, from when you were younger. When you read these books. Fantasy and such."Kristl gave Henry a look, "Gosh, you are starting to scare me.""Scare you?""Well, you are actually right, I have not read much fantasy for a long time. I got a bit tired with the copy and paste books that flooded the market. And we did not have the internet then to figure out the good from the bad. Or even the mediocre from the bad. You had to read the blurb and page through the book. Hundreds of them.""See.. I can listen," Henry smiled sanguinely."Oh.. ah.. Well, we might even make a good woman out of you yet.""Let's not go overboard now.""But the answer is no. I picked it up once as it had intriguing cover of a woman riding a horse and holding something up. A staff I think. Like a magic user.""And?""I gave it a try but never got past the first few pages. Perhaps I had lost interest in the whole Arthur legend at that time. The Arthur legend was another dead horse that was beaten ad nausea.""But did you read it , Henry?" Kristl asked."Nuu.. Fantasy is not my kind of thing.""So what do you think of this women movie.""Well.. it is a bit quaint.""Quaint?" Kristl said."Well it was nice to see eh the woman side of it all, but it was kind of uneventful.""No kick ass girls in this one.""And full of 'functional' sex and even incest. I mean. It was as if the whole woman side of the Arthur legend consisted of scheming, backstabbing, incest and sex.""Apparently.""I wonder if it was written by a man.. a misogynistic one, " Henry said.Kristl laughed, "I was told Marion Zimmer Bradley was a woman. Perhaps the book gives a more favorable angle on the story. Turning a book into a movie usually means that the story has to be condensed and suffer.""Yeah.""I wonder if you can follow the story if you do not have some background information. Like it is never quite explained why Lot hates Arthur.""Some things are also strange. Like when Uther Pendragon sneaks into the castle of Gorlois, disguised as Gorlois, and beds Igraine she gets knocked up and then marries Pendragon, " Henry said."Hmm," Kristl said."Strange is also the decision of Morgause to spare Mordred. She first wants to kill him when he is a newborn baby but when the delirious Morgaine blurts out he is actually Arthur's son, she spares him..But why? They say that when Arthur has no sons, they are next in line for the throne. So why let Mordred live?""I got the feeling that much what was in the book could not be put into the movie and thus we lack events that probably would make the story more 'sensible'," Kristl said."Another strange thing is the passivity of Morgaine. I mean it seems like almost everything is happening to her and she is a bit helpless in the face of it. Like oh, right I am taken away to this Island to become a priestess. Oh right, I have to have sex with this guy in some ancient ritual. Oh right, I am to be married off to king Uriens.""Oh wow, that was one of the dumbest scene ever. Arthur discussing with Uriens to arrange for a wedding and then when they ask Morgaine if she wants to marry this 'royal person' from Wales, they forget to mention that is was the father Uriens they meant and not his son. That was so lame. As if such political decisions were done in such a offhand manner. I would grant that Morgaine would probably have had no choice, but the movie suggests it was a mistake and that she could not back out after it had been arranged for fear of Uriens losing face.""So?" Henry said."To wrap it up?" Krisl queried."Still a reasonable movie to watch, I think. Just for the story line.""And the acting is decent. Not very good, but passable.""Yeah. But the fighting and magic is lame. It is as if people are afraid of hurting each other. And that absurd way of fighting of Mordred. Did he travel to China to learn that tactic?" Henry said and continued, "And did it not strike you as odd that Morgaine at one time suddenly became this killer fighter? Throughout the whole movie we see her never touch a sword and then when she gets ambushed she kills half a dozen of these Saxon raiders. Wow. Way to go girl.""I think fighting came natural to women in those days. Men had to work hard for it," Kristl smiled."Yeah.. right. As 'natural' as in that women always hit something when they park their cars backwards.""Not much of a 'skill'. And not true at all. A fable. A persistent recurring one. I wonder if we are still claimed to bump into things while parking when flying spacecrafts.""Well fables tend to linger on.. so I guess you are stuck with it one way or another. It just morphs into something new.""And no doubt we will be seeing another Arthur legend.. maybe next time it will be about gay relations.""Or aliens.""Or gay aliens.""Now that is an idea."

jveetree Well its not the book at all, so if you are expecting that its better to dream. So much so that I think it should have a different name, like Excalibur II or something. But there were parts that kept to the book and so it goes. But oh man if you watch this and never read the book I feel sad for your loss. The book is a thrilling tale about change and fate. It delves into realms of religion and how one religion overcomes another. There are also sub plots of innocence, trust and the betrayal of trust. This show was more about the men and their lives. I had hoped that maybe someone would have the nerve to show a differing viewpoint but I suppose not yet. I am sad and so I lament. Please someone have the nerve to make this book as a movie as it is, not for the forwarding of a differing perception but because it is a beautiful book.

fandmorgaine What's immediately clear in watching this mini-series for anyone's who's carefully read the book is the moment MZB passed and the producers got full control of the film's direction. Part one adheres loosely to the book. Part two departs from it entirely and reverts to the typical telling of the tale. It looses completely the threads of the women's story to the point where the only way to get Morgaine back into the action is to put her on a horse, give her a sword, and send her into battle. Important sub-plots which would tell us more about MZB's character's are dropped ostensibly due to time constraints, but others are created which add nothing at all to the story. In effect, Part one is recognizably MZB, though it loses all its profundity. Part two is NOT recognizable as MZB's story. Anyone who had read the book and was shown only Part two would have no reason to connect the two at all. Yes, lovely costumes, sets, and actors... a nice pageant, but that is not what Bradley wrote. What a shame! What it needed was someone with the dedication that Peter Jackson had for LoTR. Clearly that is not what it had.What I might have thought had I never read the book?... Having spent 22 years in professional theatre, likely I would not have finished watching it. I would have shut it off about 20 minutes into Part two. Let us hope one day to see the treatment this magnificent story deserves, but this is not that day.