There have been zillions of incarnations of this particular story and who knows which one tells it in the truest form. In this version the legend is told from Merlin's point of view, from his creation to his old age. There's no way of verifying how much of this is true but I imagine that Queen Mab and Frick are just made up characters.
Originally a 2-parter TV movie, hence the abrupt fade-out halfway through, the three hour running-time is a bit too heavy to take in one sitting so I recommend watching one half, then the other, over 2 days.
Sam Neill is rather good as Merlin but he's acted off the screen by Martin Short and Miranda Richardson (who looks seriously sexy as Queen Mab). Merlin's magic never rises above hand tricks, while Mab and Frick are doing wild, imaginative thingies all over the place. A bit of a bad move in the writing there. Mab is also the main villain (even though I'd be on her side) and she still out-ranks the campy, grown-up Draco Malfoy dude who plays Mordred (who we're supposed to hate the most).
Rutger Hauer, James Earl Jones, Helena Bonham Carter and John Gielgud pop up in smaller roles and they do what they can with the weak script but there is no excuse for Isabella Rossellini being in this. She is absolutely awful! The script does suffer heavily from poor dialogue but good actors can cover this up with good acting, every single word that comes out of her mouth is worse than noise of beating a penguin to death with an old violin. Eesh! While the first half has a fair amount of magic and atmosphere the second half is bogged down in endless 'Arthur' scenes. He's not developed as an interesting character and is it any wonder his wife goes and cheats on him? The secondary female characters seem to be played by the same woman as they all look the same and don't do much than sit around. Even Nimue seems content to sit on Avalon Island forever while her boyfriend Merlin visits her every 30 years or so. And they don't age. Thanks to these implausibilities it's easy to lose the time line.
Steve Barron (who did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) does give us some lovely shots and the occasional moment of atmosphere. The sets range from enchanting to plastic and fake (Camelot, whatever it may have looked like, always looks like crap on film-ALWAYS!) and SFX range from convincing to cheap. The one consistent part of the film is Trevor Jones' absolutely great score with makes up for all the magic missing in the talking scenes.
The new special edition DVD has a brand new full frame (as it was shot) transfer that looks bright and colorful. The new Dolby 5.1 soundtrack adds a serious amount of bass to the voices and sound effects but can pronounce the sporadic ADR a bit too much. A new commentary by Steve Barron, a featurette and some SFX breakdowns are also included.
Originally a 2-parter TV movie, hence the abrupt fade-out halfway through, the three hour running-time is a bit too heavy to take in one sitting so I recommend watching one half, then the other, over 2 days.
Sam Neill is rather good as Merlin but he's acted off the screen by Martin Short and Miranda Richardson (who looks seriously sexy as Queen Mab). Merlin's magic never rises above hand tricks, while Mab and Frick are doing wild, imaginative thingies all over the place. A bit of a bad move in the writing there. Mab is also the main villain (even though I'd be on her side) and she still out-ranks the campy, grown-up Draco Malfoy dude who plays Mordred (who we're supposed to hate the most).
Rutger Hauer, James Earl Jones, Helena Bonham Carter and John Gielgud pop up in smaller roles and they do what they can with the weak script but there is no excuse for Isabella Rossellini being in this. She is absolutely awful! The script does suffer heavily from poor dialogue but good actors can cover this up with good acting, every single word that comes out of her mouth is worse than noise of beating a penguin to death with an old violin. Eesh! While the first half has a fair amount of magic and atmosphere the second half is bogged down in endless 'Arthur' scenes. He's not developed as an interesting character and is it any wonder his wife goes and cheats on him? The secondary female characters seem to be played by the same woman as they all look the same and don't do much than sit around. Even Nimue seems content to sit on Avalon Island forever while her boyfriend Merlin visits her every 30 years or so. And they don't age. Thanks to these implausibilities it's easy to lose the time line.
Steve Barron (who did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) does give us some lovely shots and the occasional moment of atmosphere. The sets range from enchanting to plastic and fake (Camelot, whatever it may have looked like, always looks like crap on film-ALWAYS!) and SFX range from convincing to cheap. The one consistent part of the film is Trevor Jones' absolutely great score with makes up for all the magic missing in the talking scenes.
The new special edition DVD has a brand new full frame (as it was shot) transfer that looks bright and colorful. The new Dolby 5.1 soundtrack adds a serious amount of bass to the voices and sound effects but can pronounce the sporadic ADR a bit too much. A new commentary by Steve Barron, a featurette and some SFX breakdowns are also included.