Arthur & Merlin

CinemaSerf

This is actually quite a watchable drama that's been made with one camera on a shoestring budget in some caves somewhere is darkest Staffordshire. It's a precursor to traditional Arthurian legend but still follows that young man - thus far called "Arthfael" (Kirk Barker) as he falls foul of nasty king "Vortigern" (David Sterne) and his henchman "Aberthol" (Nigel Cooke) who murdered his mother when he was young and then drove the young man into the woods. He's heard tell of the legendary "Myrrdin" (Stefan Butler) in whom he thinks he can put his trust and maybe get some vengeance. What now ensues is all fairly predictable, but rather than dot the thing with endless cheap and cheerful visual effects, it satisfies itself with a few blue bulbs (out of shot) and some slightly comical acting to feign the mysticism, hypnotism and evil of the times. There's probably too much dialogue and at times you just want to scream "get a room" to our intrepid pair of rebels, but by limiting itself to delivering something that doesn't rely on tech is hasn't got, it works akin to one of the old television episodes of "Robin of Sherwood" meets "Merlin". No, you'll never remember it afterwards, but if you like the genre and the characters then there are plenty of worse renditions out there.