Linbeymusol
Wonderful character development!
Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Leofwine_draca
ARTHUR & MERLIN is an indie-budget retelling of the Arthurian legends, in which the heroic Arthur and Merlin must join forces to tackle an evil druid and King Voltigern. What I can say in this film's favour is that it's actually set in the Dark Ages unlike most Arthurian retellings, so it looks good; the costumes and wooden huts all have that air of authenticity to them. Unfortunately the film itself is clumsily plotted and quite boring, lacking the most basic elements of structure and narrative to make it remotely watchable. The cast give bored performances, there's no attempted characterisation, and the story just drags and drags.
Miracles Happen
This is the story of how Merlin and Arthur got to meet each other. It is brilliantly developed and I just couldn't keep my eyes off the screen for the entire duration of the movie. The acting is superb and very convincing both for the villains and the heroes; I particularly liked the portrait of Merlin with all his oddities. The druid figure is also incredibly daunting. If you like this genre, you will not be disappointed because the landscape, the costumes and the acting are absolutely perfect. Be prepared for an incredible adventure!
Thomas Hanhart
Recently I watched two blockbusters which I thought to have missed in the cinema: Maleficent and John Carter. Both I haven't watched until the end. Since I'm a big fan of the Arthur saga since my childhood I decided to give this non-blockbuster movie a try for my Saturday night cinema hour. And now I must say there was way more fun and excitement in this low budget production as in the aforementioned ones made by one of the biggest entertainment companies. What did these films cost? How many such great small but fine films like Arthur & Merlin could have produced with this money? My insight from tonight is that I will look much more after such unknown but great productions, than watching ultimately to often the same crap out of the so-called top film league. Sorry, but people who only rate this based on its low production standards are not true cineasts.
Prismark10
Set in the dark ages of an ancient magical Celtic Britain, Arthur and Merlin is an origin story where we see the two characters meet as children before the story goes forward fifteen years when they become adults.Arthfael (Kirk Barker) is a young Celtic warrior from Cornwall who has been banished to his lands and he teams up with the wizard Myrrdin (Stefan Butler) who has been hiding out in the forest utilising his magical powers to defeat a powerful druid who has the attention of the old king and who wishes to destroy the Celtic people.The film has all the elements of a quest and obviously inspired by the Lord of the Rings movies and John Boorman's Excalibur but with an extremely low budget. There are several scenes of an overhead crane camera shot following a group as they run along the hills. However the story is thin and the film is overlong where it starts to drag early on.I was surprised to find that the film was shot in England, I first thought it was one of these films made in eastern Europe and they made good use of the rural/countryside locations.However with the recent popular adaptation of Merlin made by the BBC the Arthurian tales need an extra dimension to attract an audience and unfortunately my young son was never entirely enticed by this film.
