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Merlin and the Book of Beasts

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Sir William:
Yet another take on the Arthurian legend, or rather, a mythical take on what happens next, after Camelot falls and Arthur is taken to Avalon.

Not to give too much away, but the Merlin in this film is perhaps my favorite of renditions- a battlemage.  He wears a full harness, or very near, of red plate armor and wields a wizard's staff offensively as well as to focus his magical attacks.  That is about all that is good in this movie...the acting's weak, the story flimsy and while the environments and costumes do lend to the atmosphere- it may as well be a MRL advertisement; I noticed several weapons, pieces of armor and clothing right from the catalog.  Not the swords though...those looked like the budget ran out and they went out and got Starfire knockoffs.  I KNOW.  lol

Also, there's no historicity but since it hasn't yet been established that Arthur in fact did exist, the storywriters crafted a new tale involving the offspring of King Arthur- I'll leave it to you to figure that part out.

Anyway, the fight sequences weren't bad, if amateurish, the armor the combatants wear is a hodge-podge of eras and locales- it would've been more interesting if I didn't already know better, I guess.

When I started writing this thread, it was with the idea of cautioning you all NOT to waste 2 hours of your life on this movie but as I thought about it, I've seen worse, this movie was entertaining, albeit cheesy as well.  Higher production values would've gone a ways to making it look like a better movie, but there's no segment where the acting was such as to make it seem believable.  I believe we as a group can and normally do, do better.  

The Merlin tv series is head and shoulders above this movie, despite being in an hourly format as a tv show.

Sir Wolf:
heheh i tried this one. i fell asleep within the first fight scene

Sir William:
Yea, the fight scenes do leave a lot to be desired...like being exciting, for one.  Still, I made it through it just to do so...I've seen worse.  Ever see The King's Guard, starring Eric Roberts and Ron Perlman?  That is by far the worst sword-oriented movie I've ever seen, and I've seen many.

Sir Edward:
Worst film? Yeah, that could be a whole discussion in itself. I haven't seen that one. But I thought "Druids" with Christopher Lambert was amazingly bad. "Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with Sean Connery was pretty awful too, but still OK to have in my DVD collection since it was a gift. Druids had to go.

Sir William:
I have not seen Druids but I did see his 99 film Beowulf, a futuristic take on the old myth- it wasn't bad, but probably because Rhona Mitra was in it and I'd become a fan of hers when I saw her as the first 'model' of Lara Croft.  She still does it for me.  lol

But 'The King's Guard' is just plain awful- it makes Sword of the Valiant look like Excalibur.  If you remind me before our next meeting, I'll bring it with me, if I can find it.  It is so awful, it almost bears watching just to see the lowest of the low point of a sword 'epic'.  Its so bad, there's not even a wikipedia entry for it!  LOL

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