Merlin: The Return [DVD]

Written and directed by Paul Matthews and brought believably to life by a terrific cast of performers, Merlin the Return is a surprisingly fun movie for Arthurian buffs, dreamers, and kids of all ages. In this story the reports of King Arthur's (Patrick Bergin) death at the hands of Mordred (Craig Sheffer)have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, Merlin the Magician (Rik Mayall) was able to stave off Arthur's defeat by magically throwing Mordred and his army into a dimension of eternal darkness, while at the same moment placing Arthur and his knights into suspended animation to await the day of final reckoning. Now, thanks to the machinations of an overly ambitious scientist named Maxwell (Tia Carrere), that day is at hand. As Maxwell prepares to use Earth's magnetic energies to break open Mordred's otherworldly prison and unleash hell on earth, the awakened King Arthur must steal back Excalibur from Mordred before all is lost...and only the traitorous (?) Sir Lancelot (Adrian Paul) can help him.Aimed primarily at kids, this movie may not be high art but it is entertaining, particularly for those of us who are always hunting for a fresh look at the Arthurian myth. The film mixes action and comedy quite efficiently, and the sight of King Arthur and his knights attacking a lumbering semi (quoth Arthur: "Yon beast is big, but slow!")is a moment of absurd genius. While the SFX are not lavish, they are good enough, and the sorcerous duels between Merlin and Mordred are spectacular in their own way. Also, the scenes of Mordred's ghostly agents possessing local townspeople are genuinely scary--and perhaps a reason why only fairly mature kids should see this particular movie.But the actors make this movie. Bergin is a stalwart Arthur, Carrere is ravishing (which hardly goes unnoticed by Sir Gawain!), and Paul is a more than believable Lancelot (here more repentant than usual). Sheffer does go a bit over the top as archvillain Mordred, but he makes a manacing antagonist all the same.No, this is not Excalibur; but it wasn't meant to be. It is good escapist fun, and sometimes that's good enough.

not a great movie- but a lot of fun for pseudo history and king Arthur and Merlin fans. Good cast played tongue in cheek.Enjoyable to watch even though very corny at times.

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I have seen a number of movies in my lifetime about Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. This one would be in my bottom three.It had some good moments, but the bad sequences went on for ever (seems like 1500 years). They could have done a great movie with a better script and special effects. The acting was sad. I have seen better acting in elementary school plays.Craig Sheffer's acting talents were never utilized in playing Mordred. Patrick Bergin's Arthur was more like a court jester than the boy who drew the sword from the stone to become the great king of legends. Guinevere and Lancelot were bit players in a bad production. The tragedy of their illicit love caused the fall of Camelot aided by Morgana was captured a bit by this movie.The two children, Kate and Ritchie, had some good moments, especially when they helped Merlin in the laboratory of Joan Maxwell who was never called Doctor Maxwell, but Miss Maxwell unless I missed it. There was an opportunity with Joan Maxwell to explore why she wanted to free Mordred. She wanted the freedom to do her research without interference. Too many times scientists become pawns of the powerful. This would have been a good theme to explore, but it was left as a passing comment. Unfortunately, too many great themes were left on the floor in this movie. One of these themes was that Guinevere still loved Arthur. After spending 1500 years with Lancelot, she realized that a piece of shining armour is not always a comfort in another dimension.When Guinevere gave Kate her wedding ring, this was another opportunity since Ritchie was knighted by Arthur that he and Kate would carry on the legacy of Arthur under Merlin's tutorage. This is definitely implied, but the theme could have been expanded.One star may seem harsh to those who love this movie, but given the context of the Arthurian vault of movies in existence, this is why one star was given.

This is a great "G" movie for kids up to about 10 years. King Arthur and Merlin and magic mixed with modern science fiction and of course the kids are the heroes who save the world from evil. Light fun for adults looking for a little silliness. Adrian Paul is Lancelot and the script borrows a few tongue in cheek lines from the Highlander TV series.

I was impressed with the star quality actors performance, and very interesting in learning about the early Merlin story. Good movie

Spoiler:Mordred says something about being 10x as powerful as when he was locked away starts casting a spell to attack Merlin and gets completely thrown off by a little kid with a small emergency fire hose.^That says a lot about the movie if you that that sounds great you may enjoy it, if you are like me and find that stupid you can safely skip this movie. The best thing to me was seeing Knights of the Round Table attacking a truck with swords and axes. The rest of the movie is utterly forgettable. Also, why does no one in the modern work have an issue with Merlin/magic/Knights of the Round Table running around?

This is for Merlin fans first of all, and we see things different. Watching this, I felt jealous that I could not have starred in it, it's fun!!! Lighten up people, with your bad reviews, you should be watching Archie Bunker...lol

This film is utter, utter, utter crap! The dialogue is awful, the direction is worse, and just the idea that anyone would mistake South Africa for the English countryside is ludicrous. Not even Rik Mayall or Patrick Bergin, very good actors in their own right, manage to even halfway save this train wreck of a film. You actually end up feeling sorry for them for having had to be part of something so spectacularly bad.

rik was so good in this film really missed

Good quality and arrived on time.

It was alright, but not as good as The Sorcerers Apprentice 😉

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