This is the only movie I know of to make the attempt to take the events of the Arthurian legend as seriously as possible, portraying them as realistically as possible, thereby making this the best film version of the legend to date. That's what is captivating about this movie. The events are approached with total emotional reality. The film creates a world in which these events really happen, there's no jarring pull back to reality while watching it. The special effects hold up fairly well because there isn't an over-reliance on them to begin with. Knowing that CGI techniques are so prevalent tends to make me hyper aware of them in movies that use them, creating friction that makes it harder to suspend my disbelief. I don't want to sit there spotting the special effects, I want to live in the film for the time I am watching it. Excalibur achieves this in spades. Excellent casting. Excellent acting, really appropriate and gorgeous costume design. One of my all time very best movies ever, especially viewed through the lens of Jungian psychology.