Merlin's Apprentice on TV

[Moogle]

Here's my review...

Be warned, it is majorly [glow=red,2,300]spoiler-ish.
[/glow] so don't read if you don't like that.

moogle62.livejournal.com/32845.html#cutid1

[QueenOfTheDance]

Moog, you know I love your review darling, and I agree with all of your points ;D

I have to be less diplomatic than both you and Sir E though, and say that I have NEVER been so bored watching a film with Miranda in. And yes, I have seen Get Carter

I go along with the continuity errors...it's like 'Merlin' was completely null and void! Where was Nimue?! What was with the Lady Of The Lake merging into Mab/Lady?! I think the producers just said 'Let's get a bit of credibility here and get Sam and Miranda back...oh, Mab died...erm, but we still want her with that sexy black hair, Oh I know, let's just change the lady of the lake completely, no-one will notice'

Oh I have to go drink a cup of tea, I'll be back to slate this more In the interests of my darling Mirandaites of course.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Incapability]

YaY! You're back! You have been severely missed!

By what you guys say about MA, I'm really getting afraid. Ok, there's no chance I could watch it anyway, it only being available as Region 1 DVD. I can cope with the movie being bad. perhaps they called Miranda and said "Hey, we're doing a Merlin-sequel, care to join us?", and perhaps she had such fond memories of Merlin that she agreed without reading a script ... well, ok, that's just me being over-defensive again. but what the heck has happened to her pickyness (is that a word?)?

[himiko]

I admit, it certainly wasn't a "sequel". Nowhere near as good as the original. And Mab was sooooo much better than LotL.

Anyway, for those who haven't seen it, I’ve typed up most of the bits relating to Miranda’s character, and the original film. If anyone wants a full summary I’ll try and do one and stick it up here, but it’ll be a bloody long post.

Warning: There are many giganormous spoilers below. If you don’t want to hear them, don’t read the post.

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1)It was the Lady of the Lake who was keeping Merlin asleep for 50 years.
2)The Lady of the Lake has turned against Camelot, because of the way in which they treated her streams and lakes. Camelot appears to have grown quite arrogant and corrupt over the last 50 years, and many people have been turned against it- including Rauskaug and his followers- the Lady of the Lake joins them to see Camelot crushed.
3)When Merlin takes the new character, Jack as his apprentice, they argue over what to do about the impending invasion by Rauskaug’s army. Jack yells at Merlin, accusing him of being the reason that the Holy Grail disappeared from Camelot- because Merlin helped build it, then just left for 50 years.
4)As Merlin finds out whilst using magic to see back in time, the Lady of the Lake can conceive naturally and have children, but to have any hope of this, the child’s father has to be “more magic than man”. Presumably, the same rules would apply to Mab, and any other female goddesses/ elementals/ sorceresses. I don’t know whether they apply to their male elemental counterparts (Mountain King, Lord of Fire, Lord Idath, etc). The man she chooses is Merlin (Great, now Merlin is sleeping with his relatives. What is it with Arthurian legends and incest?) , and Jack is their resulting offspring.
5)Merlin magical strengths apparently lie with Earth magic- Jack inherits both Water and Earth magic from his parents, and one assumes that the water part comes from the Lady of the Lake.
The Lady doesn’t appear to be evil, or at least, as evil, at the point at which Jack is conceived. She thanks Merlin, and claims that she wanted a child because she couldn’t stand the loneliness (so why she gave him up to be raised by someone else I know not). Although, one assumes she is evil, or at least anti-Camelot, by this point, as she has been keeping Merlin asleep for 50 years, and using her magic to bewitch him into conceiving a child with her.
6)Merlin still uses hand gestures to perform magic- although he uses a wand on occasion in MA, which was never seen in Merlin. Apparently, the amount of power he can wield has been diminished- holding up a bridge nearly kills him. However, the admission by the Lady of the Lake that he is more magic than man, implies Mab’s half of him is far stronger than he would have liked to believe in Merlin.
7)The Lady of the Lake doesn’t appear to care very much for Merlin, despite him being Jack’s father. When he runs out of uses, she commands Rauskaug to kill him- Rauskaug duly beheads the unfortunate wizard. See what I mean about canon failure?
The Lady of the Lake does attempt to get Jack on her side after he finds out that she is his mother, although he refuses. However, her first concern is crushing Camelot and its few remaining citizens, rather than recruiting her son.
8)When Jack angers her, she manages to remove his water magic, or so he says (although he retains his Earth magic).
9)After the defeat of the troops of Camelot, the Lady of the Lake makes one final offer to Jack- she offers to see his friends buried respectfully, in return for him walking away from the fight. He refuses, and uses the Holy Grail to bring all the dead Camelot people back to life, and call a truce with Rauskaug, but not before following a proud family tradition, by killing his mother (He uses a blast of magic and she screams and fades away very quickly- she obviously wasn’t quite as strong as Mab).
10)Jack visits Merlin in the afterlife, and they make friends. Yay for them.

That’s about it. Hope that was helpful to everyone interested.

[QueenOfTheDance]

Thanks for the welcome back Incap I do always lurk but I just decided to start posting again, I can't help but have strong opinions to share where Miranda is concerned!!

To be honest the thought of MA makes me feel slightly nauseous
The teenage leads were, without exception, APPALLING. They were the most offensive part in fact.

I watched some of original Merlin yesterday....ahhh meeeeee, what genius compared to this rubbish ^ ^

xxx

[Queenie]

I'm just mad with myself becuase I was out and forgot to set the video recorder.
Grrrrrrrrr.

Still, I'm sure it will be on again sometime. Well I hope it will at least, dispite the tennage leads being bad.

[mickthefrik]

Yes - I pretty much agree with everything that's been said.

MA disappointed in so many ways, really.....where the hell to start?

In the original, a long time passes from when Mab ( sadly ) disappears to when we see the aged Merlin,
telling the story. Lake Lady is weakened - but still around - so I think many of us thought MA would be set around then. No such luck ! We are introduced into a world where not only Arthur survived - he found the holy grail as well ! I thought that, as an infant, he was cursed by Mab, never to have much luck.......

After watching this, I know how he feels........

It was just so different in tone to the original, less light and shade - it just didn't sparkle for me.....just
compare the two casts! One, a galaxy of stars, the other, well......

Miranda's reputation won't suffer much - she was hardly in it !

And did you notice how Channel 4 just "slipped" it into their schedule? I never saw it advertised - it's almost as if they were ashamed of it ! It wasn't that bad ! It just had a lot to live up to ........

Of course, we all knew it was filmed in Canada, but it was so obviously not England ! ( No offence Canadians, we all know you have a beautiful country - it just doesn't look like Dark Age Britain! )

If I get the DVD it will be for the interviews - but according to one IMBD writer, even they ( Miranda and Sam's ) are apologetic in tone. I wonder why ? Er, perhaps I have an inkling......

Nobody I know thought that it was anything like as good as the original. Even people who didn't like the original ( sorry, but it has to be said - they're bonkers ) described it as " even worse " on IMBD etc.

And did you notice - promise to shut up in a minute - that Camelot was a different building?

I'm still a little suprised that Miranda and Sam had anything to do with it. I suppose those lovely German Pointers and Siamese cats take a bit of feeding, and then there's the vets bills........

Sorry about all of this, everyone, but here it comes : AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew! That's better! Kind regards........

[himiko]

Agreed. Merlin was so very much better than MA. Leaving aside that Mab wasn't in it (which I will be bitter about for the rest of eternity), the place was so obviously different (except when they nicked the outdoorsy places glimpses from Merlin), and pretty much all of the new cast made such a horrendous mess of the English accent. The only time a fake English accent has annoyed me more, was Neve Campbell in "Churchill- The Hollywood Years", which made me want to claw out my eardrums.

I know only one person who watched MA and perferred it to the original. But then, he is obsessed with the Eurovision song contest, and knows an utterly sad amount about it. He also likes the UK's entry for this year, which just proves his opinions on the entertainment industry are dodgy at best.

BTW, I wouldn't describe Miranda's interview on the DVD as apologetic- I would, however, describe it as short. She appears only once, and that's basically describing what the Lady of the Lake is, and what she does. Sam Neill's is somewhat apologetic. He praises the original Merlin quite a bit, but pretty much all he musters up about MA is that it's completely different, and it's not really a sequel.

[Queenie]

himiko said:

I know only one person who watched MA and perferred it to the original. But then, he is obsessed with the Eurovision song contest, and knows an utterly sad amount about it. He also likes the UK's entry for this year, which just proves his opinions on the entertainment industry are dodgy at best.

That is pretty sad and depresing, not offence to him, but seriously, the Eurovision Song Contest?

[Incapability]

Awwh, get away with that. I mean, WE are sending a COMEDIAN dressed as a cowboy, with a band called "Texas Lightening", for pity's sake!

that MA stuff sounds really bad. I guess we'll never find out why she really did it (I mean do you think they paid much when the rest of the actors were obviously so bad? had tha paycheck been decent, they could have hired decent actors)

[Queenie]

I have actually no idea what idiot we are sending out to humiliate themselves!!
*runs off to see*

[himiko]

A rapper *goes off to slaughter self with shame* There goes the last of my national pride. All that I can hope is we get the 0 points we deserve, and Finland wins by a landslide, and then I can go up to my friend and say "HA! Told you so!" Or words to that effect. And punch him if he insults Mab's voice again.

BTW, Queenie, don't worry about offending him- he has had plenty worse from me and the rest of us. Another metal-fan amongst my friends nearly slaughtered him when he said he liked our entry for Eurovision. Thankfully, we were on MSN at the time, so any slaughtering was purely virtual. Until the next day, anyway...

[Incapability]

we had a metall-band in the pre-whatever, and it placed third. damn, had I kown it competes, I would have called loads of times.

[himiko]

All our potential entries were such utter shite, I didn't bother voting. And what do you know? The worst possible act won.

[Incapability]

same here. well, one year we had a fashion designer competing. Rudolph Mooshammer. got strangled with a telephone cable last year. by a rent boy. now his driver is taking care of his dog.