Amazon.com Essentials:
What kind of guy was the wizard Merlin, anyway? He lives a long time,
raises a boy to be a king, props up a Utopian empire with his magic and
wisdom, and then watches as it all crumbles under such banal forces as
vengeance and betrayal. This four-hour miniseries re-tells the story of
Camelot and King Arthur from the perspective of the magic man who
sacrifices a
great deal to guide mortals toward a better destiny. Sam Neill plays Merlin
as
an accessible, flesh-and-blood fellow of real passion, powerless to undo
the
spell of a rival (Rutger Hauer) who has virtually imprisoned Merlin's great
love, Nimue (Isabella Rossellini), but gifted enough to counter the
treachery
of Morgan Le Fey (Helena Bonham Carter) and the wicked Queen Mab (Miranda
Richardson). The battle sequences and special effects are striking and
original, and it is great fun to see such art-house movie actors as
Richardson,
Carter, Neill, etc., in fantasy entertainment the whole family can enjoy.
(An unrecognizable Martin Short must be singled out, however, for a
wonderful,
largely dramatic performance as Mab's sidekick, Frik.) Directed by Steve
Barron (The Adventures of Pinocchio), Merlin is a nice
bit of glossy revisionism of a beloved legend. --Tom Keogh
