Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Leofwine_draca MERLIN: THE RETURN is an ill-advised B-movie reworking of the Arthurian story, studded with recognisable British actors but made on a tiny budget that renders the whole thing complete nonsense. I mean, I know this was a kid's movie and all, but to make no effort whatsoever in terms of scripting and staging leads to great embarrassment all round. Nobody here gives a good performance aside from the reliably kooky Rik Mayall, and even he's off-form. The rest of the cast are wooden, particularly the awful Craig Sheffer as the villain of the piece. Patrick Bergin shows up as a tired Arthur while Adrian Paul appears briefly as Lancelot, while Tia Carrera is a random scientist added to the mix. The film's awful special effects and general lack of coherence make it worse even than the kid's films churned out by Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures enterprises from Romania, and that's saying something.

Ada_Lovelace All right, it's silly, and a little bit lame - but this film is entertaining... The sight of Mordred's soldiers, going through the rift as skeletal ghosts is genuinely freaky - but fun. The friendship between the children was a little bit sudden, but nice - and there was genuine suspense, and as is to be expected with Rik Mayall as Merlin, the film is funny. I found it genuinely entertaining. It was great to see so many women in important action-filled roles, and Tia Carrera's villainous woman scientist was a convincing portrayal. Craig Sheffer's scenery-chewing is great - he obviously had a wild time making this film, and there are elements of comedy in his over-the-top portrayal of Mordred. In some ways, the film seems to be trying to achieve contradictory aims - comedy and horror and they don't seem too well-melded. Yet, I still consider this a good evening's entertainment.

Angry_Dad Remember the 1980's, where bad fantasy films sprouted out of the woodwork? Well, if you want to re-live that 1980's bad fantasy film experience again without watching such "gems" as "Hawk, the Slayer", "Ator" or "Krull", just look for this one collecting dust at your local video store. Hmm... Adrian Paul AND Tia Carrere, oh you KNOW this is going to be good. I can't think of a film with Tia Carrere in it that didn't stink. Tia really needs someone with either some sense or some taste to look at the scripts she is given and tell her which ones are rubbish, because she obviously has no idea which scripts are terrible. Then again, maybe they drove a dump truck full of money to her house. Adrian Paul, better known for latching onto one of the most overrated franchises of all time ("Highlander" is so lame, and yet it spawned so much... ugh), gives a very wooden performance at best. All this film needed to hit the "Bad Movie Actor Trifecta" was Christopher Lambert; at least we have Craig Sheffler doing his best Christopher Lambert impersonation as Mordred. Even Rik Mayall, the reason why I watched this (I loved his work in "The Young Ones" and "The Black Adder"), seemed to give a uninspired performance.It seems the theme behind the production here was "slapdash", and considering when it came out, this theory may be right. Despite the date given here at IMDB, the Copyright date on the movie is 2000, and both "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" were in production, so it seems like this movie was done as a way to cash in on the upcoming fantasy boom early, like "Dungeons & Dragons" also did in 2000. The sets were laughable at best, especially the Stonehenge set (placed in a valley here... um, did you look at Stonehenge before erecting the set). The sword fight scenes, choreographed by Adrian Paul, looks worse than a group of children playing around. I didn't realize that working on a bad TV show for a few years can make one a fight choreographer.However, there is one interesting part in this film, that being the forces on the Earth that create and control magic. That was interesting, and I could see some fantasy role playing gamers implementing this in their games. After all, only hard core fantasy film buffs (like myself) and fantasy gamers will suffer through this tripe.If you need your fantasy film fix and don't want to watch "Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter", watch "Conan, the Barbarian", "The Thirteenth Warrior", "The Mists of Avalon" or "Dragonslayer" instead. I would even watch "Conan, the Destroyer" before watching this again. A major setback for the fantasy film genre.-Angry Dad "Look, it's internet buffoon, Angry Dad!"- Sideshow Mel

GRECOFILM If, when in the cinema, children are spinning round to stare at you, it means either that the film itself is terminally terrible or you've sprouted a massive boil on your forehead that you hadn't quite noticed. The first answer is, of course, the right one. And as for "Merlin The Return", it's a stinker in a division all of its own. It's almost as if director Paul Matthews had accepted a bet to make the worst possible film. Well, he's succeeded, and his winnings are bound to be more than Merlin will ever make.Matthews' lumbering style sees the picture heave from one gormless scene to the next, helped on its way by the most awful acting. Rik Mayall (Merlin) trots out his usual sweaty desperation and manic panic, Patrick Bergin (King Arthur) looks like an embarrassing dad (complete with silly wig and glitzy, disco-friendly pullover), while the token American (no doubt included to secure international release - some hope) is a kid who seems to be reading his lines off Merlin's forehead.