ORBzine - Merlin - April 1999
Buy your OWN copy of the novelisation - Merlin: the old magic Shown 4th April 1999 [Sunday] Everyone's favourite Kiwi, Sam Neil [ In the Mouth of Madness ], is revealed as Merlin. The old man recounts his past, which features villains such as King Vortigen [Rutger Hauer - Blade Runner ] and the Pagan Goddess Mab [Miranda Richardson - Legend of Sleepy Hollow ]. Yes, the hacks who wrote this effort chose to take the easy way out, to butcher the original legends and paint the Christians as the good guys. Though the plot and dialogue are flawed, the performances, SPFX and camerawork are all excellent! Gielgud's much-vaunted appearance is over quicker than the credits, and Hauer doesn't make it to the end of the story. Ah well! Shown 5th April 1999 [Monday] Today Merlin's new enemies, replacements for poor Vortigen, are Morgana [Helena Bonham Carter - Fight Club ] and Mordred. We all know how the Arthurian Legends end - but Merlin finally ends his own conflict with Queen Mab. There is even room for a happy ending of sorts! The real surprise of this effort is not how well the SPFX can be handled in a 4-hour TV show - after all, Merlin was produced by the people responsible for Ted Danson's wonderful version of Gulliver's Travels. No, for this review the realisation that Martin Short was such a proficient straight actor came as a wonderful shock. Indeed, his role as the gnome Frik was a piece of jokey comic-relief for the culturally illiterate - but Short brought a dignity to the serious scenes that this reviewer had previously though completely beyond his abilities. Buy your OWN copy of the novelisation - Merlin: the old magic
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