Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Review: Merlin's Apprentice

Review: Merlin's Apprentice

This sequel to 2003's Merlin follows the main rule of the sequel: it's crap.

There's not a single redeeming feature in this ill-advised piece of drivel. It's badly written, directed, acted and thoroughly cheap. Most of the effects are old-fashioned lights and pyrotechnics, armies are represented by 10 extras. Every cliché of word, stunt, performance, costume and camera is used.

The story manages to be trite, clichéd and confused all at once. The usually reliable Sam Neill looks like he’s barely keeping his face straight a lot of the time and Miranda Richadrson is wasted. I can see the idea of keeping her as the villain of the piece, but surely her character could have been the same one? Or does every evil woman in this world have the same face?

Frankly (which I just appropriately typo’ed as ‘Rankly’), I can’t be bothered talking about this turd of a production. Avoid like a persistent floater in the local swimming pool.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006