MERLIN AND THE BOOK OF BEASTS (2010) * I'm not at all convinced that whoever wrote this is more fluent in the Arthurian Legends than I am, which isn't much. Not to be discouraged, or shy, they happily mix in a bit of Greek Mythology. Well, alright then, since they opened up that can of snake-headed women I helpfully suggested that the entire thing "might be saved if the dynamic duo of Batman and Indiana Jones show up." But it was not to be. I don't think they had a big enough budget to pay the extra characters. The whole thing is a lot like a high school theater production-but on actual locations-except that the actors are obviously too old for high school. The girl looks like she can actually pack a punch, though (lots of female high school leads can too, obviously), and for some period of time the dark smoky mutterances of Merlin are compelling to some slight degree. Not for long though, but then after that I decided to assume that he was really a M ö torhead roadie who'd taken one psychotropic excursion too many and really thought he is Merlin-totally unaware that they were even making a movie-and that was pretty fun. I'm not sure that it will amuse everyone else as much, though.
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