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.

ayu1990 I didn't see all of it, because after a while, I found it very boring. And Queen Mab with the voice that sounded like she had laryngitis, which I at first thought was amusing, but throughout an hour of the movie it just got annoying. As for the love story between Merlin and Nimue, in my opinion, it was hurried and there was no character development at all. The characters in the movie weren't hard to figure out, it was easy to tell who was evil and who wasn't. The battle scene on the ice didn't look very convincing, except for the blood. And the racist joke when Merlin first came to see Mab in the cave wasn't amusing either.

peoplesmachine "I really enjoy this tale of King Arthur from Merlin's point of view. Much of this at times is based upon who invented King Arthur in his History of the kings of Britain Geoffrey of Monmouth Shire. His work was considered the definitive of Britain's history for over 600 years, even though when he found gaps in the information on that history he added what he wanted and derived King Arthur from an amalgamation of different Celtic kings that staved off the Saxon invasion for many years. Sam Neil is very effective as Merlin and Miranda Richardson gives an outstanding performance as well. King Vortigern is wonderfully played by Rutger Hauer an actor I really like and steals any scene he is in. Every character is wonderfully played and although the effects in the film are cheesy by today's standard remember this came out on TV 1998 and CG was in its infancy and cost way more then than now. Never the less this tale is one of the better drawing from all sources including Geoffrey's, and worth the watch. The scenery is splendid and the battles are effective and fairly bloody at times. I haven't watched the sequel but I have been told not to. Merlin himself as played by Sam Neil shows range of emotion and charm and a subtle sense of power that he both uses and possibly fears. Queen Mab as played by Miranda Richardson is both beautiful and dangerous and has some subtle underlying humor to her performance. Martin Short is remarkable as Frik. I also love the scene where Queen Mab visits King Vortigern and he brings her onto his lap in a almost romantic sense and her reaction on her face is both perplexing and she seems almost powerless in his hands. Rutger Hauer again here stealing the scene from an award winning actress. The complexity between the coming one God of Christianity versus the pagan ways of old as an theme here is well done, because that is what happened and played well by all on screen. I think this is a great movie filled with some humor, love, betrayal, battles won and lost of both the physical and mental including the spiritual. There is not many TV movies with kind of heart and soul and is worth the price of admission."

Xander Seavy (RiffRaffMcKinley) I've never been big on made-for-TV movies. They tend to be underdeveloped, idiotic, and full of more plot holes than a book about Swiss cheese.The only notable (full-length) exception is the fantastic "Merlin," a very well-handled, beautifully visualized, and superbly performed fantasy drama starring Sam Neill and Isabella Rossellini. What's most interesting about this film is that it's really quite different for an Arthurian tale: it's about Merlin, not Arthur!In fact, Arthur is just another one of the players who visits Merlin's board every now and then. His fellow characters always enhance and never detract from the story, and no one ever steals the show.The cinematography is almost theatrical in its beauty. The sweeping music is... well, nice and sweeping. And the magic could make even the stoniest-faced Scrooge believe in *something.* Welcome to the world of "Merlin"-- a world you're not likely to forget.