SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Rainey Dawn One of the most beautiful made for TV films, or rather mini-series. Another take on the story of, legends surrounding, Camelot. This one has it's focus on Merlin, as the title suggests. It starts out with Merlin tell us his story starting from his youth, how he met the Lady Vivian, Merlin's romance with Nimue, Excalibur, Merlin's battles with Mab, the Sword in the Stone, the rise of Camelot, Uther & Arthur, all the way to Merlin's end. The film packs a lot into 3 hours without loosing anything.The visuals are done on a grand scale: from sets, costumes, special effects, cinematography and great casting. As with all of the stories and films of Camelot, there are a few slight variations and this particular version is an excellent take on the legend.Martin Short, Frik, gives a bit of a comedy relief without overdoing it. Miranda Richardson is Queen Mab - midwife of faeries - that originally appeared in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" but made a great addition to this tale. Sam Neill is superb as Merlin the Magician - I rather like him in this role.All around great movie. It's one the whole family can enjoy (and child friendly) but it's super for any one that cares for the story of Camelot.9/10

Harmonee-831 I definitely have this in a movie format.. Was it really a miniseries on TV? Where would you split it up?I like it better as a movie, personally. It all flows nicely and it'd be too short for a miniseries anyway. I actually had a heck of a time trying to find it on Netflix and Hulu and others mostly because I couldn't find it as a movie (couldn't find it at all, actually.)Does anyone know where it went from TV to movie and where I can find a copy of it? Otherwise, I thought this was a great movie. Showed things from a different point of view for the story of King Arthur and that era. I recommend.

sonofjorel2 my favorite part was when people strove to forget queen Nam (i don't know how to spell her name.)so she died.I also liked at the end when merlin met with Nam's servant\friend (don't even remember his name.I saw the movie about a year ago.) after he became a good-guy and he led merlin to his wife\lover.i liked this movie because it had action but still told the story of king Arther and Merlin the wizard with details but didn't bore me(but thats just because i love this kind of stuff!)overall i loved this movie!from sonofjorel2

funkyfry Things might have got off to a rocky start the instant they cast the rather pedantic actor Sam Neill as Merlin the Wizard, but he actually did a decent job. Same cannot be said for most of the rest of the cast, or the production in general. Far be it from me to judge a TV movie too harshly, but this one seems to call itself in for extra scrutiny because of the huge cast of stellar actors that are often used rather cynically. For example John Gielgud is 3rd billed, but only shows up for about 30 seconds in the very first five minutes of the movie.This seems (judging from Neill's reappearance in unconvincing old-age makeup) to have been a two part film, encompassing all the major events of Arthurian lore but focusing on the perspective of Merlin. In order to do so, the writers have given Merlin a nemesis played by Miranda Richardson and a lover played by Isabella Rossellini. The film often imitates John Boorman's "Excalibur" instead of the authentic mythology, but unfortunately they didn't develop Merlin's relationship with Morgan Le Fey (Helena Bonham Carter) nearly as well as was done in that film. Poor Miranda Richardson seems to have been the victim of poor decisions that her director should have held in check -- she speaks throughout the film in a sort of whisper that's supposed to be earthy and scary but which is annoying after just a few moments. Rossellini as is her wont injects a minor role with all kinds of false gravity.Although Martin Short makes Herculean efforts to put humor into the story, the only scenes that made me laugh were when Rutger Hauer takes over the film as a blunt and self-consciously idiotic previous King of England. "My opponents think before they act; I act before I think and that gives me my advantage." It's hilarious stuff delivered in a delicious straight manner by Hauer, one of the few actors to emerge from the film richer than he entered it in any but the financial sense.The effects in general are rather poor, looking extremely similar to those used in the "Hercules" TV series. The camera work and direction by Steve Barron is somewhat more accomplished than one would expect. Many faces are familiar from "The Odyssey" miniseries which was made by the same producers apparently.