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**SOME SPOILER CONTENT**
I have seen this film twice, and my reaction after seeing it the first time was, "Wow, what crap! I can't believe the book turned into this!" However, the second time I watched it I was able to cut them a little more slack, because I could focus less on the story and more on the acting and choice of characters, and possibly why they made certain parts of the film as they did.
Obviously, one of the main issues with the film is that the book is very long, and they had to find a way to cram 900 pages into a 2-hour movie. That is hard enough in itself, which means a lot of the book had to be chopped out or addressed only very briefly. Which means that, if you were watching the movie and had never read the book, you would probably be really confused as to why things are happening. A lot of major events were slimmed down into 2-minute or less conversations, or sometimes only 1 sentence. However, I do give them credit for putting a lot of the major events in the movie, given the short time frame. The second time I watched it I was amazed at how much stuff they actually did manage to put in the movie, and gave them credit for that.
The next issue was, the whole tone of the movie does not match that of the book. In the book, the old religion and Avalon are mystical, magical, mysterious, and powerful. The whole tone of the book is like that, but it really doesn't carry over into the movie. In the movie they keep saying things like, "If you don't help Avalon we'll bring you down," but if you hadn't read the book, you'd probably think, "Why? They don't look that powerful." In a lot of the scenes, the people of the old religion (example, the Beltane scenes) end up seeming like barbarians, which was totally not how it was in the book. The issue of the rivalry between Christianity and the old religion was extremely toned down in the movie, presumably to fit modern Christian audiences. The book showed both pagan and Christian fanatics, but in the movie, the Christians were not as hardcore as they were in the book. I think a lot of the issues/themes were less extreme in the film.
Another issue was the entire end of the movie (which I will not go into here)! The last 30-40 minutes of the movie had no resemblance whatsoever to what happened in the book. Was this creative license, a wish to re-write the ending, or was it designed to prove a point, or made that way to Hollywood-ize the movie? I don't know, but it was disappointing.
OK, the next issue is casting.
Good Casting: I loved Julianne Margulies as Morgaine, and I really think she did a great job of being Morgaine, and was probably the best-cast actor/actress in the movie. Samantha Mathis also did a good job as Gwenhwyfar, although her religious fanaticism was not really discussed in the movie. Arthur & Lancelot were OK, but they didn't do any really extraordinary acting; they were really on the sidelines of the movie.
Bad Casting: I did not like Anjelica Huston as Viviane. I thought the entire character was way off from the book. In the book, Viviane was a powerful, aloof sorceress, but in the movie she was smiling and hugging people and crying. Viviane did not do these things! Maybe the decision to change the character for the movie was made by the director; I don't know, but it was a poor decision. The "power" of Viviane was basically nonexistent in the movie. I did not like Caroline Goodall as Igraine; she was way, way too old (she was supposed to be about 16 or 17 at the beginning of the movie, but she obviously looked 35-40)! Igraine's character should have been more feisty, but it really just seemed contrived. As for Joan Allen as Morgause: I thought Joan Allen was good as an older Morgause, but someone much younger should have played her at the beginning of the story (she was supposed to be 12-14 at the beginning). Also, obviously Morgause was made out to be a villainess for expediency's sake in the movie, but she was really not like that in the book. I think I understand why they did that in the movie, but her character was really more complex than just a villainess. Also, the part of her using magic to curse people was way off from the book: Morgause was not really a practitioner of magic; she didn't have the knowledge.
Horrible Casting: Merlin. His character had zero impact; he might as well not have even been in the movie.
All in all, it was still interesting to watch, but woefully inadequate as an adaptation of the book.
score 5/10
Lunagoddess 6 June 2004
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0725608/ |
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26-1-2021 00:49:12