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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 17754
Released: March 8, 2005 |
| Our Price: $7.84 |
| Used Price: $2.94 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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.
Description of Earthsea:
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 Roché). 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
Earthsea Reviews:
Eerthsea Rattles 
2008-06-27 - I recently ordered "Earthsea" from Amazon.com. When I received it in a yellow padded envelope, I heard this distinct rattling sound, that indicated the disk was loose and flopping around in it's container. As I removed it from the box, half of the split retainer button fell out and I noticed a circular ring showing on the disk which suggested that the disk may be damaged. I played the disk and it worked fine. As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it and I will watch it again. If you are into this genre of film, I recommend it.
lame 
2008-06-03 - Wow, they screwed up bigtime. This is horrible compared to the books and its as simple as that. If they stuck to the story better, or maybe if they even completely followed the books, then they could have made this a fantastic series. Earthsea has the potential to be a great series of movies if someone where smart enough to make them good. . .
They don't have a "below" one star. 
2008-05-14 - Oh, all right. Perhaps it wasn't that bad. It was poorly written, bad dialogue, and of course I know the books which made it even worse.
But even if you don't know the books, there's a lot of silliness and useless things in here.
Like it was based on the book report of a 10 year old who never read the books
2008-04-20 - Horrible, and terribly disappointing! I've read, and loved, the Earthsea books since I was 13, well over 20 years. I saw this at the store and grabbed it, having never read a review. I had to FORCE myself to watch the entire thing just because I paid $15 for it, and I'm still angry over wasting my money. The only things they got right were the names of the characters, and even then, not entirely. Who the h*** is King Tygath??? And when did the Tombs of Atuan become a place of good and light??? Evidently, whoever was involved in this movie, actors, writers, producers, etc...never read the books, or they'd be as horrified as Ms. Le Guin and her fans were. And I still want my money back!
"I was just going to make myself a salad... Would you like some?"
2008-03-20 - "Earthsea", one of my favorite "bad movies", would, I think, be moderately memorable and enjoyable to someone who had never read the two books from which it is "adapted", Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" and "The Tombs of Atuan". Seen in the light of those two books, however, "Earthsea" is clearly one of the very worst literary adaptations ever filmed.
"Earthsea" interweaves two storylines. One story, the saga of the journeys, adventures and coming-of-age of the young wizard Ged (played with solemn mediocrity by Shawn Ashmore), is a somewhat unfaithful but still recognizable version of "A Wizard of Earthsea". The other storyline, featuring excellent performances from "Smallville"'s Kristin Kreuk as the young priestess Tenar and the luminous Isabella Rossellini as the high priestess Thar, is an "adaptation" of "The Tombs of Atuan" so unfaithful, both thematically and narratively, that it is virtually unrecognizable as the same story.
The most controversial aspect of this movie was the casting of white actors as characters intended by Le Guin to be non-white. In Le Guin's books, the people of most of Earthsea have skin tones in various shades of brown. Only the barbarian Kargad islands are inhabited by white people. Thus the casting of Ashmore and most of the rest of the actors is contrary to Le Guin's intent. The only major cast member with dark skin is Danny Glover, who plays the wizard Ogion, the Gandalf/Merlin figure of the story -- thus neatly conforming to the Hollywood stereotype of the Magic African-American.
The only performance good enough to justify this allegedly "color-blind" approach to casting is Chris Gauthier's wonderful portrayal of Vetch, Ged's best friend. The scene in which Vetch and Ged tell each other their true names is so powerful that it always makes me cry, both in the book and in this disappointing movie. Le Guin's writing of that scene is so good that not even this movie could mess it up.
