by [ irulan ]
“The Legend of Earthsea” was a SciFi channel produced miniseries based on the Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin. They have a hit and miss reputation with their movies and miniseries. With Earthsea, they did a bit of both. However, I think the miss was more apparent.
The miniseries tells the story of Ged, a blacksmith's son who has dreams of becoming a powerful wizard. He learns a little magic from a village woman and manages to save his small village from an attack by creating a fog that encases the attackers and misleads them so that they fall off of a cliff. A nearby, powerful mage hears this tale and comes to visit Ged. Ogion gives Ged his true name and offers to teach Ged the ways of becoming a wizard. Through Ogion, Ged ends up at the Isle of Roke. Here there is a wizard's school that will remind Harry Potter fans a bit of Hogwarts. Ged quickly proves his abilities and learns rapidly; he knows his potential. As a result of being overconfident, he participates in a forbidden wizard's duel. While showing off, he manages to raise a dark and dangerous creature called a gebbeth that wishes only to physically manifest itself in Ged's body and use his power for evil. Ged runs from this evil, eventually running into the young woman he's had dreams and visions about since he was a child. It also turns out that Ged possesses half of the single artifact that can bring peace to all of Earthsea. I don't want to give away too much, but I'll just say it's a happy ending.
As for the technical side of things, unfortunately there is not much to say. The acting is mediocre at best. To be fair though, the script doesn't really permit for outstanding performances. There are some decent CG effects, particularly so for a TV miniseries, but certainly nothing to be awed and amazed by.
I know it is not really fair to compare the book to the movie. In my experience, I have never seen a movie better than the book from which it originated. Books have more room for details and allow the reader to get inside character's heads. That is simply impossible to translate to the screen. However, I do think it is a wise idea to have the author involved in the screenplay, and if that is not feasible to for the writers to have at least read the books. It seems that the writers of “The Legend of Earthsea” didn't even read the book synopses on the back cover. If you have an urge (as I did) to pick up the books after viewing the miniseries just prepare to be surprised. I'm not going to list all the differences, but I will instead advise you that there are a lot. And I mean a lot. In fact, you will most likely wonder why Ursula LeGuin allowed SciFi to come within 20 feet of her books.*
Though the Earthsea Cycle is comprised of 4 books, the miniseries was actually pulled from the first two. The really intriguing part is that the miniseries completely and totally rearranges important plot events, which is why the movie has a sort of jumbled, undirected feel about it. There are also at least three characters that are just made up and thrown in for plot twist; they were never even mentioned in the books.
Overall, if you're looking for a fun, if somewhat campy fantasy tale you will be pleased with this movie. If you are expecting an on screen version of the Earthsea books, you will be sorely disappointed.
*Ursula LeGuin was actually very frustrated with SciFi's translation of her books to the screen. Visit this link to read her reaction: http://www.slate.com/id/2111107