Not as interesting as the first story. Not many good special effects like the first. It was a disappointment.

Directed by David Wu, Merlin's Apprentice tells the story of Merlin joining forces with a young thief with untapped magic powers of his own (engaging Canadian actor John Reardon) in a quest to recover the lost Holy Grail, which holds the key to Camelot's protection and survival. Thing is, about halfways through, Merlin finds out that this young thief happens to be his son(how is THAT for a plot twist, folks?). As you may have noticed by reading other reviews here, it's storyline doesn't pick up where the first film left off. This movie takes place some 50 years later with Merlin waking from a long nap. It has little to do with the first film and has more of an alternate story timeline.

While this movie is good for a fantasy film by itself, it is not good as a sequel to the first film. I wish I could be more forgiving of this movie but it lacks direction, story, special effects, even acting as opposed to the original. Like one reviewer pointed out, it is a sequel in name only. It was a bit disappointing to me that it was done this way. The only saving grace to this movie is the performances by Sam Neill & Miranda Richardson. As expected, their roles were dead-on to the ones in the previous movie.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you can get past the fact that this is a sequel to the first film, overall- Merlin's Apprentice is a watchable movie. If you're expecting it to be as great as the first film, well---it just isn't happening. It doesn't hit that mark of excellence and you'll go away quite disappointed. All I can say is rent before you buy....not unless you get it in a bargain bin like I did.

Let me state one more thing before I close this review, the company that made this movie makes great movies. Their record has more hits than it does misses so don't let one movie blemishe you picking up any of their other movies. I have lots of their movies and this is the first one to disappoint me to some degree.

I watched this movie without having ever viewed Merlin. As a stand alone film, I thought it was pretty good. The plot is interesting and the story moves along at a good pace. There are interesting characters and a satisfying conclusion.

this movie was a disappointment really. I thought it would be alot better but it was okay.

I'm not going to argue with the people who gave this one star... I'm not even going to say that they're wrong. Actually I read through several of the lower reviews and they make a lot of valid points about the film. However, I liked it - I don't know why I liked it, I just did. Have you ever caught yourself watching a ridiculously stupid television show and you just can't seem to stop watching it... you aren't sure why or how, but even though you know you should dislike it, there is still something about it that is just so entertaining. That's what this movie was like. I just liked it - I'd watch it again. It was just simple, and enjoyable and fun... It wasn't phenomenal, it didn't have great effects, it was just pleasant.