Daisy Brambletoes Once upon a time, there was a stirring and delightful movie named "Merlin", which gave us yet another perspective of the Arthurian legends, from the viewpoint of the wizard Merlin. It was great fun.Then there was a so-called sequel, called "Merlin's Apprentice". This film, in fact, has a lot more to do with Lloyd Alexander's stories of the "Prydain Chronicles" than it has to do with either Merlin or Arthur. And as a sequel, it is appalling. A proper sequel would tie directly into a previous movie, and this one simply doesn't. "Merlin" has its own story and as such the sequel should have stayed true to it. I could have believed it a lot more easily if, in the last scenes of the movie, I had seen a white-haired, bearded old wizard in the background telling tales to the kiddies. Fans of the original know what I am talking about.It was not what I'd call a bad film, because it was interesting and at times amusing, but it still felt all wrong. And the star of the film often seemed to be the Pig. I liked the Pig.

tribblechomper Completely tossing out the window the events of the original miniseries, as well as the reasons Merlin did what he did, this execrable excuse for a quasi-sequel sucked like a vacuum cleaner on hyperdrive.Miranda Richardson repeating as The Lady In The Lake, good; looking like Queen Mab in her golden years (instead of the albino-white of the miniseries), and having placed a spell on Merlin so he slept (while she essentially raped him) 50 years...? I really wanted to like this (and yes, I saw both parts, and the featurette), but this was just too horrid for words!

ozthegreatat42330 I enjoyed this one because it goes into an area almost never touched on, what happens after Arthur and the fall of Camelot. While the humor of Merlin (especially Martin Short) was not in as great a supply, it still had the story to tell. It did seem to me that the leader of the raiders was trying to emulate Arnold Schwartzenegger in his Conan days, and taken with Merlin, it was not the best casting for Miranda Richardson to play the Lady of the lake, since she was queen Mab before. I would have liked for Sam Neill to have had more screen time, but there was an excellent story here, and you were never really sure of the outcome until the very end. It is not quite as good as "Merlin" but still, all in all, very watchable. If you really want a good Arthur miniseries then have someone film the four books of Mary Stewart's Arthur and Merlin saga.

treasuretrove_vip Bad is the keyword for this film, and it can be applied to almost every facet of it. Bad storyline, bad dialog, bad acting, bad adherence to the Arthur legend and worst of all bad follow-on to the original. In fact there are so many contradictions to the first Merlin that this cannot be considered to be a sequel. Sam Neil (whom I like very much) just mailed this one in. I suspect he demanded his own death scene halfway through as a desperate way to get out of the film. The writers should have their paychecks seized and donated to a worthwhile charity.