Earthsea

Earthsea
by Robert Lieberman

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DVD details

Actor: Danny Glover, Isabella Rossellini, Kristin Kreuk, Sebastian Roch?, Shawn Ashmore
Director: Robert Lieberman
Brand: Lions Gate
Producer: Kevin Kelly Brown
Producer: Lawrence Bender
Producer: Matthew O'Connor
Producer: Michael O'Connor
Producer: Robert Halmi Jr.
Writer: Gavin Scott
Writer: Ursula K. Le Guin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 172 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate

DVD Reviews of Earthsea

DVD Review: Poor Fantasy Fare
Summary: 2 Stars

Earthsea / B00077BPA0

*Spoilers*

I haven't read the Earthsea book that this is based on, although I do own it and intend to read it, even after suffering through this horrible adaptation, because the comments here lead me to believe that the book is far, far better. Fair enough.

Having said that, this was a pretty awful movie. Weighing in at three hours long (apparently this was originally aired in pieces on the Sci-Fi channel), this plodding cliche-ridden movie is a genuinely terrible attempt at fantasy, with only a few bright points of redemption.

To start, the audio in this movie is absolutely terrible and makes the movie unwatchable almost from the beginning. I usually note in my reviews whether a movie is packaged with captions for the hearing impaired, as I generally require captions in order to follow along with the dialogue. Earthsea is not provided with captions, which disappointed me but isn't as unusual as one might think, so I expected to simply rely on my viewing companions for the words I miss. The audio quality is so terrible, however, that even my perfect-hearing boyfriend could not discern what was being said on screen half the time. The opening narration by Glover is so garbled that, even after watching it EIGHT times in a row, all we could make out was " Earthsea Nameless Ones ". The visual effects allowed us to piece together the back story of a nunnery, an amulet, and a sealed door with evil behind it, but that was more to do with clich?d fantasy tropes than decent sound editing. The audio got worse from there - the actors frequently mumble their lines and we were deeply annoyed every time "Sparrowhawk" came out as "Spare-A-Hawk". Enunciation should not be limited to A-list actors.

Too much of the plot is compelled by convenient actions and assumptions that are never explained. The hero and heroine have lifelong visions of one another for no reason other than it facilitates the plot and allows them to "trust one another" immediately in circumstances where they otherwise would not. The timeline is disjointed - with the breaking of the amulet being presented as ancient history (the nuns study pictures of it in their history classes, the people speak distantly of it as 'lost forever', the head magus never expected to look upon it in his lifetime, etc.) and yet the breaking of the amulet turns out to be a relatively recent phenomena because that way the Old Woman At The Beginning can have turned out to be the nun who started it all. Why, then, are people so resigned that the amulet is 'lost forever' when the losing was so recent? Human nature isn't like that - there should be hundred of ne'er-do-wells looking for the darn thing, and why, please, have the sisters never noticed that a large chunk of the thing is embedded in a key they see daily?

I am also baffled by the idea that one would send a powerful young wizard to learn discipline in an academy that clearly exercises no discipline whatsoever over its most unruly members. The murder scene with the serving nun is simply ludicrous - a person does not simply stand there and let themselves be quietly strangled to death without kicking, struggling, or otherwise fighting. And I make a motion that the blatant Bring The Cheery Dead Side-Kick Back To Life clich? be banned from all future fantasy movies. Seriously.

The only thing I really liked about this movie was the idea that the "evil" emotions one carries must be acknowledged as real in order to be a whole person. It's a little too easy these days to go the "anger must never be felt" route these days. I much prefer a philosophy that acknowledges that our anger is simply a part of us and while we shouldn't be controlled by it, neither should we expect to be able expel it entirely. However, I may be giving this movie too much credit in order to say SOMETHING nice about it. Well, here's one other good thing - I liked seeing Isabella Rossellini from "Death Becomes Her" in this movie. Her voice is always lovely and her acting is solid.

I do not own this movie, I rented it from my Blockbuster Online account.

DVD Review: Wizard of Earthsea
Summary: 3 Stars

I teach a ninth grade English class and assigned the novel THE WIZARD OF EARTHSEA. The film actually takes up two of the authors novels so was a little confusing to students but we managed to muddle through and hopefully encouraged several to read the next novel due to the film. The special effects are interesting, the acting a little slow. Not bad to give a visual for kids.

DVD Review: Definitely entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars

Neither my wife nor I have ever read the book mentioned in so many of these negative reviews, and we both found this miniseries to be exceedingly entertaining. Apparently it has very little in common with the book. But if you haven't read the book, you'll find this movie to be as entertaining as we did. Highly recommended...;) -kd5-

DVD Review: Not the Book - It is a Movie
Summary: 5 Stars

This is not at all like the book, which I will admit. And, I am one that feels very strong about books and movies resmebling each other. This is an exception.

Listen, for all of you that love the book, I am sorry that this movie was not the book - in any way shape or form. I know that the Author herself is very disappointed in this movie. Here is my stand on this. I look at this as a completely different beast.

If you compare this movie to the book, you will be very disappointed. The only similarities are the names of characters, and even that gets switched around in the movie. The places are similar, but not by much. Basically, this is a screenplay written by someone who decided that they wanted to do their own story, and they did.

So why do I give it 5 stars? Because as a movie, with no thoughts about the book, this is actually a pretty good movie. leave out the comparisons, and you would be better. If you are die hard and want only what the book has to offer, then read the book.

Sorry, but many movies miss the mark of the books that they are "Based" on. Some completely miss the mark, but they should not effect the feelings toward the movie. This movie stands well on its own, though I think that they should have called this something else, and renamed the characters out of respect to the original story.

DVD Review: Hollywood screws the pooch
Summary: 1 Stars

I'd love to see an interview or documentary of the completely incompetent writers and producers who took Ms. Leguin's masterpiece and turned it into complete doo-doo. READ HER BOOKS!!

Description of Earthsea

Based on Ursula K. Le Guin's multiple award-winning classic tale comes this richly imagined epic mini-series. In the magical world of EarthSea, the Amulet of Peace has ensured harmony between humans and dragons for centuries. But when the Amulet is broken and a piece of it disappears, it's up to a neophyte wizard to restore balance and stop a nefarious king from conquering EarthSea's islands.

Originally broadcast as Legend of Earthsea in December 2004, the Sci-Fi Channel's four-hour miniseries of Earthsea rides the coattails of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with its quest-driven story of humble blacksmith Ged (Shawn Ashmore), a wizard-to-be who is mentored by the magical Ogion (Danny Glover) as he seeks to preserve the realm of Earthsea from the evil King Tygath (Sebastian Roch?). Ged's adventures lead him to the priestess Tenar (Kristen Kreuk, from Smallville) and with secrets shared by High Priestess Thar (Isabella Rossellini), they gain the power to prevail over Tygath. As presented by Robert Halmi Sr. (producer of Merlin, Gulliver's Travels and several other fantasy miniseries), this skeletal rendering of Earthsea boasts a wealth of digital effects and semi-lavish set design, but Ashmore's lack of charisma hampers a production already fraught with problems. It provoked the wrath of fantasy fans and a firm rejection by author Ursula K. Le Guin, who had watched helplessly (she wasn't involved or consulted) as her classic novels A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan were racially "whitewashed" (in Le Guin's words) nearly beyond recognition. As TV fantasy goes, Earthsea is admirably ambitious, but best enjoyed by those with no awareness of the classic books it is very loosely based on. --Jeff Shannon

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