Merlin: The Return is a very unusual but rather enjoyable film with a completely different twist on the Arthurian legend. The idea goes thus: vastly outnumbered and outmanoeuvred, the only way Merlin can save Arthur and his knights is to put them in a long, long sleep far away from anyone, while banishing Mordred and his hordes to another dimension (or something along those lines). Fifteen centuries later, a scientist called Joan Maxwell has inadvertently started to break the spell in her experiments with the earth’s magnetic field, and has somehow made contact with the evil Mordred – who, of course, wants out. Merlin is still wondering the lands, thought by the locals to be a batty old man, and must somehow stop this from happening. One other complication is that the spell used to keep Arthur and his nights asleep has also been weakened – and Arthur has a score to settle with his wife Guinevere and first knight Lancelot, who are trapped with Mordred’s cronies.
Surprisingly playing an almost straight role as Merlin, Rik Mayall (The Young Ones) capers around trying to find out what is going on and using his powers to prevent evil from entering into the world again – well, prevent more evil from entering it. Arthur (Patrick Bergen) and his crew are somewhat belligerent and itching for some action after their long sleep (leading to a very surreal scene where they attack a lorry with swords!), and they don’t always exactly help matters. Of course there have to be young children involved in a storyline like this, so young American brat Richie Gould (Byron Taylor) and young English bratette (Leigh Greyvenstein) are Merlin’s little helpers. To their credit they manage not to be too annoying, on the whole. Other cast members include Julie Hartley are Guinevere, Craig Sheffer as Mordred, and Tia Carrere as Maxwell. (Maxwell is a character who quickly becomes very easy to enjoy watching bad things happen too!).
The storyline is surreal enough to make up for the fact that it’s decidedly shaky at times, and the whole thing has a strong element of surreality. There are some thing that work very well – Mayall as Merlin (somewhat against my expectations) was very good, the child actors are good, and one or too other cast members did good jobs. On the other hand some of the acting was frighteningly bad…! The special effects looked pretty good on the whole, and the action sequences, though often ridiculous, were entertainingly shot. It actually works best when its being openly ridiculous such as in the scene where the knights attack a lorry, because then it’s far easier for the viewer to forgive the other flaws of the script and acting.
(One common thread that seems to run through all Pendragon-based movies is that Guinevere is very annoying. In this film she is perhaps more annoying than ever!!)
Merlin: The Return is a weird film that works to some extent but never quite keeps it together long enough to stand out as being above average. If you like Arthurian legend and fancy something that deals with it a little differently… and, well, oddly… It’s certainly entertaining and frequently quite funny, and rather different which is (usually) a good thing. I liked I, but it never quite got into gear so was in the end it was also a little disappointing.
Other Information
Director: Paul Matthews
Music: Mark Thomas
Year of release: 1999
Runtime: 90 minutes
Rating: PG
(There was one moment that young children might find scary when Mordred’s sorceresses become wraiths, and the film does slightly portray an incestuous relationship between Mordred and his mother.)
Country of origin: UK
Filmed in: South Africa (many of the cast are South African)
Production company: Peakviewing Production
Peakviewing Production
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