Merlin and the War of the Dragons

I had the misfortune of buying this DVD from Play.com thinking it would be half decent to watch. What a mistake that was, as other reviewers have said this is quite bad, actors who can't act etc. etc., but worst of all there is no COLOUR to the film, no green grass, no flesh tones, nothing actually, I know it is supposed to be the Dark ages but the director Mark Atkins is also a cinematographer but he well and truly "cocked" this film up big time. What Jurgen Prochnow was doing appearing in this film is anybodies guess, the story isn't that bad with better direction and a bigger budget from money saved by hiring totally unknown actors except Jurgen who knows. A POOR EFFORT, not a very good advert for the British film industry.

I've watched this movie with my family during Coronavirus lockdown in Italy, because my youngest daughter loves dragons. I expected a low cost movie and my expectations were fully confirmed. Actors are mediocre, special effects could have been good for a 1980 movie, but this was published in 2008. Plot is not very interesting, and overall it evolves very slowly and therefore the film is boring. Not suggested even if my youngest daughter found it good (just because there are few scenes with dragons, much less than I expected).

Likes :

* The CGI dragons are great - very mythical and more appropriate than a more Hollywood/Spielberg style would have been

* The location - totally fitting moody Welsh landscapes

* Some of the acting was good

* The music was a bit overblown but quite professional

Dislikes :

* The acting direction was non-existent so despite the individual actors doing a reasonable job there was no sense of interaction or timing.

* The camera work was atrocious. Most of the film is shot in close up with occasional distant shots where you cant actually see whats going on. Ironically although most shots are static (i.e. no dolly or tracking)the degree of camera shake tells you its hand held.

* Editing was poor and uninspired. Some of the conversational sequences were obviously pieced together from shots taken at different times.

Even low budget films can be successful if well directed - this one unfortunately wasn't. There are so many bizarre mistakes - hand held cameras that don't actually move; gorgeous open Welsh landscapes that you cant see because the camera work is too tight, good enthusiastic actors that end up sounding like a school play through lack of direction.

Debatable if worth the time to watch it, but has its good sides. Starting with the bad ones. Low budget in everything. While not a crime by itself, one is left to wonder if scenes of murdering someone by sticking a sword under his armpit are best left out. Constant impression that the whole acting crew is maybe 20 people... Which for supposed massive battle scenes with little cg and minimalistic make up looks odd if nothing else. Script is simple and straightforward. One may chuckle at "Mage" being the mage's name... On the good side - actors are very enthusiastic and so very Welsh, which is a good thing as it is refreshing and unusual. Minimalism and ascetic cg/sfx actually convey almost theatrical impression, at the same time evoking a kind of an 'old school' atmosphere (or maybe it is just me). To sum it up - an OK for fantasy fans, not OK for action/cg/massive/budget fans, a sure yes for welsh and legends of round table fans. I'd love it if actors from this movie got big enough to surface in other ones. While acting is often crude, they have their own charm and look different.

This movie was pretty bad. The best thing that it has going for it is the scenery. The acting is horrible with few exceptions, the special effects are VERY bad, almost like there was no effort put forth. Merlins character looks like McLovin from Superbad, and the antagonist looks like someone who got beat up everyday in high school. I don't remember his name, but one of the warriors gives a really cheesy motivational speech to his army of 15 people that was ripped off from braveheart. The massive armies that are battling it out are comprised of about 30 ugly actors and occasionally some poor CG. Half of the actors couldn't control there horses. I wouldn't recommend watching this movie. Sorry of my review is a little disjointed.