Merlin Reviews

There was a brief period of time when Hallmark was able to take their penchant for bloated CGI, rushed story-telling and liberal use of celebrities in thankless roles and actually turn out a TV movie that was worth watching, that made these flaws less noticeable through sheer force of will and hard work. Merlin is one such example.

That makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy it, and I very much did. It’s just that it’s also got more than its fair share of problems. An over reliance on too many characters means that developing many of them becomes practically impossible to do, and watching them suddenly try to develop Nimue in the second half is wince inducing. She exists solely as the romantic interest of Merlin, and a prop for Queen Mab to use as a tool for her schemes and grand manipulations. Any heart or soul in the character is from Isabella Rossellini’s gifts as an actress and mere presence.

Even Merlin, whom the show is named after, never really takes on any complicated shape beyond how he’s sketched in during the first hour. Sam Neill is perfectly fine in the role though. He brings a prankster’s twinkle to his younger days and an old man’s remorse to the latter ones, but in-between he is hopelessly naïve or strangely cocky about his skills and knowledge. These contradictions are never smoothly integrated into one complete character, and a few more scenes of Merlin just talking and interacting with other characters and less CGI trickery would have solved this issue.

There is a lot to like about Merlin though. In addition to Rossellini and Neill other fine actors give their unique spins on characters from the Arthurian legends. Helena Bonham Carter gives her typically loopy and strange reading to Morgan Le Fey, Miranda Richardson is fantastic as both the villainous Mab and the serene Lady of the Lake, Martin Short reveals tremendous depths in the original creation of Frik who begins life as a villain’s side-kick and transforms into a more soulful and human character. Rutger Hauer, John Gielgud, James Earl Jones, Lena Headey and Jason Done are wasted in their all too brief roles, becoming little more than cameos and making one wonder how such a strong group of actors agreed to such tiny parts.

Another thing to appreciate is the production values. Every penny is present and accounted for in the luxurious costumes, impressive camera work and editing, and special effects which are very high-quality for television work. That dragon is particularly unique and impressive looking, as are transformation scenes in which characters become young, old, beautiful, or, in one instance, a face melts off. It’s smoothly done, but sometimes a little distracting from the central conflict of Christianity replacing the old pagan gods and goddess.

Granted, no version of this story could be properly told without a large helping of special effects work, but they could have been more accessibly incorporated into the story. There are times when one gets pulled out of the story wondering why they chose that effect instead of just appreciating it. Still, Merlin is a romp, problem-filled but still solidly constructed. It zips by at a very quick pace, never loses our interest and is beautiful to look at. It’s a nice three hour investment.