User reviews

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.

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).

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.

I consider myself a fan of dragons which is what attracted me to watching this film in the beginning. But from almost the beginning it was clear that the special effects were completely unrealistic. The dragons well i cannot find a word strong enough to explain how poor they look and how unbelievable unreal.

Not only were the special effects poor but the acting is as well. The whole movie just screams low budget. The battle scenes are terrible you see people getting cut with swords but at no point do you actually see any blood. At one point after a battle everyone basically gets up and runs away. Its over dramatic at all the wrong points and some of the backing music is really played at the wrong times.

I do not consider myself to be harsh i have honestly never been so disappointed in a film. I will not be recommending it to anyone and i feel the need to in fact warn people before they waste time or heaven forbid money actually watching it

I hope this films budget was so low they could not even pay their actors. There is absolutely nothing good with this film. The actors cannot act and most of them seriously needs some tweezing. The "special" effects are outdated. The plot is more predictable then an episode of Murder she wrote. This film could have been entertaining if the people making it at least would know they were producing something so bad it dos not even warrant a straight-to-DVD release. But doing slow motion fight scenes to hide the lack of choreography and blurring the screen when the dragons are shown to hide your lack of a special effects budget is just really pathetic. If you want to watch a decent Merlin film, get the mini-series from 1998. Not only has it a better plot and actors, but it seems that special effects were better 10 years ago.

If they make this into a trilogy I will resign from mankind and go live with the two horrible, but kind of cute, Lady of the lake actors in their cave.

Strange to see tar Mac road running through the hills in the days of merlin😂😂

I couldn't keep from commenting, although I rarely do. After reading some of the nasty comments on this film, I couldn't keep myself from commenting. The nasty commenter's obviously didn't watch the same film that I did.

The film I saw, although lower budget, is a very well shot, well thought out story of the young Merlin. It has nicely developed characters, is very well cast, and most of the acting was very good. I was impressed at the local welsh talent in this film. The story moves along well, and you really get caught up in the story, and the characters. I would say this is definitely a director to watch in the future. Also, the girl who played Lady Vivianne... also a real solid talent. I was surprised to learn this was her first feature film. Of course, Jurgen Prochnow turned in a very solid performance as well, which is to be expected.

But anyone who calls this film laughable, or poorly done, either doesn't know good film-making, or simply is trying to put the filmmakers down, for some personal reason. The film has a lot of heart, and I truly hope to see a sequel to this film, as the ending hints to? (I hope?)

I liked it. It was not awful, and not the best film ever. But it was fun. Considering the usual fare on a lazy weekend, it's good enough. My wife writes fantasy and we watch plenty of films of this genre.

CRITICISMS: It didn't have huge surprises and the props and costumes needed a little help. The book, for example, was quite tattered on the outside, but the pages were a bit too clean, and the edges of them were perfect. Shouldn't they be dog-eared and worn with spots and smudges?

Costumes were TOO CLEAN - and in too good a condition. You would expect, particularly after battle, dirty clothes with rips and tears. And how does Merlin stay so clean shaven out in the field all day? And swords should be bloody after you run through a man with one. Small things like that.

Our biggest issue with the film-making was the sped-up parts of battle. That was - sorry for the word - cheesy. The special effects were not very special.

COMPLIMENTS: I think Info-11159 said it well in the "A good old fashioned - good VS evil fantasy film" comment. His (her?) point about needing a bigger budget and more time is really what was needed. We really enjoyed the horse scenes, but we're horse people. We always enjoy seeing beautiful horses handled by highly skilled equestrians. The riding was very good and a pleasure to watch.

The filming location was GREAT. I like seeing these kinds of stories in more authentic locations. Very beautiful countryside that contributed to the project. That's a sacrilege for me to say - we're in California and our son is a writer in Hollywood! But truly - filming in the UK was perfect for this.

The actors did well with what they were given and the story was just right for this genre.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. I do like the genre. I think to really enjoy it, you have to have the right expectations. Don't expect huge budget Hollywood fare - think of it as a fantasy B movie and just go with it.

If they do a sequel, I hope they use the same horse suppliers and riders - and don't speed it up. Those people were highly skilled and could handle the action just fine at the speed they would be performing at. Maybe get a little bit better CG software.

I would watch it again.

This Movie is pretty bad, to begin with something, the framing of the entire movie doesn't go anywhere beyond CU. The SFX are OK for a low budget, but an army of 30 ugly men is not.... Most of the costumes where a little off. One of the warriors didn't know how to wear his own helmet! But one of the worst thing if not the worst part is that the sword "Exalibur" is a rip off of Glamdring, Gandalf's Sword. If you are going or make a movie with low budget and bad acting, at least try to be original with Props.... I strongly recommend to see this movie as an example of how a movie shouldn't be made. It had a good cover in the DVD which made me think it would be worth it, however after the first 10 minutes I decided to finish the movie just for the fun of it, since I wasn't going to get anything out of it, by the time they showed "Excalibur" I was totally off... Watching this movie to the very end (out of respect more than anything else) was a huge pain. You couldn't pay me enough to watch it again.

This movie, if one can even call it that, is bad all the way around from the cameraman who seems to be epileptic, to the silly battle scene in which all 20 cast and crew took part in and the utterly ridiculous attempt at a troop rallying speech (picture a mentally challenged version of Mel Gibson's Braveheart speech). Although I have to say at this point it was good for a laugh, watching them try and make 20 people look like 20,000 by quickly changing camera angles (which may have been the epilepsy again). Total budget for this movie, $24.65. $20.00 on props, $2.00 on CGI, $2.00 on the script and .65 cents on acting lessons. If you like fantasy movies stay away from this one... far far away!!!

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.

To be honest, I was expecting Merlin and the War of the Dragons to be bad. When I did see it with an open mind and no actual idea of how it actually would be like, I was actually rather mixed on it. I don't think it is ever going to be one of my favourite movies and I don't think it is the best thing since sliced bread either. However, I do not think it is as bad as the rating and some of the negative commentators say. By all means I can definitely see why one would dislike Merlin and the War of the Beasts, but considering how many other low-budget movies I've seen that were far worse than this one I personally do not think it was that bad, and wouldn't ever say things like "you have no idea what a good movie is" or "you have to be a shill to enjoy it".

Are there flaws? I do think so. The camera work is static at times, especially in the fight sequences which were not all that compelling and somewhat incoherent. The costumes and props are on the cheesy side and do look too clean. The dialogue does have a crassness to it, and some of the acting does show signs of inexperience- I personally was not convinced by Simon Lloyd Roberts but maybe that's just me- making the characters somewhat stiff(which sadly doesn't make up for their rather clichéd personalities). The music is not so bad, there are some nice fantasy-like parts, but at the same time it is not amazing either coming across in places as overblown.

However, I did like the idea of the story, and while there is some filler that could have been cut and there are few surprises there are some exciting moments and I wouldn't call it dull either. The locations are stunning and I loved the horses and the way they were ridden also. The effects compared to other films I've seen are not bad either, the dragon looks reasonably good actually. There are some decent performances as well, with Dylan Jones faring best. Jurgen Prochnow seems to be having fun as the Mage and Carys Eleri and Nia Ann are lovely without being just that. In conclusion, not awful but at the same time not great either, if anything I'm in between on this one. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I find it hard to believe this movie was made in 2008. It has horrible acting, and even worse special effects. The graphics were terrible. It was a decent story-line if you want to go along with the myth behind the Arthur story rather than the historical record we see in the 2004 movie King Arthur. Granted, there is the typical myth behind Arthur with Merlin "the wizard" and the Lady of the Lake, but I think that the actual historical Arthur is a better story than the myth, because it actually happened, rather than making up a bunch of things to embellish it. Anyway, the story was OK, but the scenes especially with the dragons were ridiculous. I could photoshop a dragon that looks more realistic than those did. And why wasn't there any blood on their swords when they killed people? The costumes need a lot of work as well.

This movie was disappointing in every aspect.

Everything is just "low budget".

The story is too simple.

The special effects are outdated (to be polite).

The "big battle" consists of ten people. (Ask Monty Python how to make a cheap good looking battle scene)

There seems to be no blood in this great Britain. (Is blood really that expensive ?)

Everything is clean all the time. (Is dirt really that expensive ?)

Excalibur is a copy of the sword of Gandalf. (You could get a copy of Excalibur for 300$)

Most events you don't see. You only see the actors watching it. (Maybe better than more cheap special effects)

Massive blunders in the every domain of film making, starting from pound for pound worst special effects on this list. So woeful that it's actually funny.

Yes, this is a low budget film ... but I must say, if you watch this film carefully and with an open mind.. I promise you , you'll enjoy this as much as I did. Old fashioned filming takes place to bring the story of Merlin alive.

Set in the beautiful landscape of North Wales , UK this film is complimented by talented local acting that support Jurgen. The special effects are believable for most part.. if the budget was bigger and the film time scale , greater , I'm sure we would see a great film ... not a very good film.... The horses were lovely to watch. The action scenes were pulled off , well done to those involved!! Can't wait for the sequel!

I wonder why this title got so many negative comments! I for one thoroughly enjoyed it. True, some of the lesser actors were poor, probably local Welsh villagers-but overall I thought the film was well presented. I liked the scenery and the fact that a lot of it was filmed at dusk-which added to the ambiance of the whole thing. It reminded me a lot of a film I saw many years ago "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" which was also filmed in Wales. I liked the earthiness of Vivienne and Nimue and the magical effects were well done. Maybe not a masterpiece but still a well made film and I was pleasantly surprised. It may have been psychological-if I had been expecting it to be brilliant I would have been disappointed-but thinking it would be terrible had the opposite affect! As far as Merlin films go it was pretty good!

I really don't understand what people see in this production, my wife watches it religiously, and I have seen several episodes, but never at any point have I reached the point where my disbelief is suspended.

How can anyone reconcile this low budget, poorly written, show with the Legend of Arthur, nothing is big enough, nobody is heroic enough.

I can't lose the feeling that I'm watching inexperienced actors trying to fill boots way bigger than they are.

I love the Arthurian legends, I've read Mallory and many others since, but this is like watching a college production, just doesn't do it justice in my opinion.

I do understand that it's a low budget production, but surely that allows for a little bit of more impressive scenery? the closed shots suggest it's filmed in some council estate woods, open up show us some of the awe of the Welsh mountains and forests.