a the hype be brew prior to it initial airing on nbc and i be really look forward to watch merlin and what seem a promising addition to an almost non existent collection of good quality arthurian film available . high expectation can often lead to big disappointment and and such be the case here . the acting be horrible and the dialogue ridden with cliche or nonsense drivel and and the plot full of hole leave the viewer with more question than answer . even an all star cast of such legend a sir john gielgud and helena bonham carter and rutger hauer and and isabella rosellini couldn not save merlin from become yet another casualty of the tv junkpile ( ` journey to the center of the earth should ring a bell ) . i blame this soley on the poor direction of steve barron and who blow a golden opportunity to right the ongoing injustice of one bad arthurian film after another . rather than take time out to do the research and it appear that most of the screenplay be borrow and put together from various arthurian film and most notably disney animate ` the sword in the stone and and ` knight of the round table and and ` first knight . sam neill and martin short be both also mis cast for the title role and sidekick respectively and and it show throughout the annoy banter between the two . it like a nightmare of watch a bad abbott and costello film and only bad . the only bright spot be paul curran and whose portrayal of a weak king arthur be more an afterthought than anything else and and the talk horse whose voice i could have swear be the reincarnate of mr. ed . the special effect and jim henson muppet shop also deserve mention and but weren not nearly enough to offset the absence of a plausible storyline and great acting a can be find in ` excalibur and ` dragonslayer . chalk up another in a long line of mediocre outing from hallmark entertainment . negative star .