Earthsea on Sci-Fi Tonight

[Coffee Warlord]

Know a lot of people love the books. Sci-Fi's certainly done enough advertising on the movie.

I did enjoy their version of Dune, though they've also put out some horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE shit. I give it even odds on Suck Factor.

[Calis]

I haven't read the books but I was reading that Le Guin or however that's spelled(the author) was pretty upset with the whole thing, and thought it was horrible.

Guess she really had no input on the deal, must've just sold the rights.

Doesn't sound good though, or maybe she's just bitter.

I need to read the books sometime though, always heard how great they were.

[Eaglesfan27]

I also want to read these books at some point. So far the movie isn't horrible.. I might enjoy it since I haven't read the books.

(The Chiefs vs Titans with their horrible seasons just didn't interest me in watching the whole game tonight.)

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, I haven't read the books myself. Be interested to hear how much they butcher things from someone who has.

Thus far. Not bad.

[Abe Sargent]

I'll watch tomorrow when they show both back to back.

-Anxiety

[DaddyTorgo]

never read the books. They ALMOST got me to watch by mentioning that Kristin Kreuk is in it, but then I figured I could just GIS and be happy that way http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Eilim]

While it might not be bad for someone who hasn't read the books, if you have... avoid it. The story itself has been butchered. I was trying to enjoy it, as it wasn't that bad all by itself but it was just so far off from the books I just couldn't take it anymore.

If you've read the books, expect to being saying "WTF" to yourself from the very beginning, and very often.

[Eilim]

Yeah, I haven't read the books myself. Be interested to hear how much they butcher things from someone who has.

Thus far. Not bad.

Dola-

Well, they kept most of the main characters names in it.. and a few of the main events(if not in the correct order.. along with adding some major new events that are somewhat bizarre to the original story.) Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to match this in any way to the series of novels. :(

Hopefully this will atleast get some people to pick up the books which are quite good.

[sachmo71]

Final verdict?

[flere-imsaho]

I haven't read the books but I was reading that Le Guin or however that's spelled(the author) was pretty upset with the whole thing, and thought it was horrible.


I'm a huge fan of the books and Le Guin's other writings. Generally-speaking, she's considered one of the more influential SF/fantasy writers of the 20th century.

Anyhoo, just to give a little more detail. Le Guin had absolutely no input in the production, but didn't have a problem with that. She has written that she understands how Hollywood works, and didn't plan on interfering, just hoping that they'd do their best.

Unfortunately, in the PR run-up to the miniseries airing, the director made some comments about how they were "realizing Le Guin's vision", etc.... Le Guin took exception to this, especially as she had seen a pre-release copy and felt that had completely misunderstood her vision. If you Google for her website, you can easily find her comments.

The crux of the problem is pretty simple. The director said they realized a vision of struggle ending in unity. This shows that he completely misunderstands Le Guin's Taoist philosophy that underlies her Earthsea writings (as well as most of the rest of her writings, to be honest). To her, there is always struggle, balance achieved through struggle. Yin and Yang and all that.

Basically, the people who made the miniseries completely and totally misunderstood the books. As a result, I'm not watching, which makes me sad, because it could have been beautifully made.

Anyway, here's the commentary from her website (http://www.ursulakleguin.com/UKL_info.html#News), starting with a quote from the miniseries director:

"Miss Le Guin was not involved in the development of the material or the making of the film, but we've been very, very honest to the books," explains director Rob Lieberman. "We've tried to capture all the levels of spiritualism, emotional content and metaphorical messages. Throughout the whole piece, I saw it as having a great duality of spirituality versus paganism and wizardry, male and female duality. The final moments of the film culminate in the union of all that and represent two different belief systems in this world, and that's what Ursula intended to make a statement about. The only thing that saves this Earthsea universe is the union of those two beliefs."
Sci Fi Magazine
December 2004

I've tried very hard to keep from saying anything at all about this production, being well aware that movies must differ in many ways from the books they're based on, and feeling that I really had no business talking about it, since I was not included in planning it and was given no part in discussions or decisions.

That makes it particularly galling of the director to put words in my mouth.

Mr Lieberman has every right to say what his intentions were in making the film he directed, called "Earthsea." He has no right at all to state what I intended in writing the Earthsea books.

Had "Miss Le Guin" been honestly asked to be involved in the planning of the film, she might have discussed with the film-makers what the books are about.

When I tried to suggest the unwisdom of making radical changes to characters, events, and relationships which have been familiar to hundreds of thousands of readers all over the world for over thirty years, I was sent a copy of the script and informed that production was already under way.

So, for the record: there is no statement in the books, nor did I ever intend to make a statement, about "the union of two belief systems." There's nothing at all about the "duality of spirituality and paganism," whatever that means, either.

Earlier in the article, Robert Halmi is quoted as saying that Earthsea "has people who believe and people who do not believe." I can only admire Mr Halmi's imagination, but I wish he'd left mine alone.

In the books, the wizardry of the Archipelago and the ritualism of the Kargs are opposed and united, like the yang and yin. The rejoining of the broken arm-ring is a symbol of the restoration of an unresting, active balance, offering a risky chance of peace.

This has absolutely nothing to do with "people who believe and people who do not believe." That terrible division into Believers and Unbelievers (itself a matter not of reason but of belief) is one which bedevils Christianity and Islam and drives their wars.

But the wizards of Earthsea would look on such wars as madness, and the dragons of Earthsea would laugh at them and fly away...

Toto, something tells me Earthsea isn't Iraq.

I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended..." would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?

[Warhammer]

If you've read the books, expect to being saying "WTF" to yourself from the very beginning, and very often.

Hmmm... That sounds like me watching the LotR movies.

[Coffee Warlord]

So now I wanna know what key portion(s) they butchered, out of curiosity.

And after the first half...it's not bad. I mostly enjoyed it. I have a feeling that it's gonna be how most book->movies go, where people who haven't read it enjoy the movie, and folks who have read it say it's the most god awful pile of shit ever.

See: Any movie made out of a John Grisham book. Oh, the horrors of the Firm, the Client, and the Runaway Jury. God why couldn't they stick to the book.

Anyway...the lead characters I think are cast pretty well. There's a strong tradition of god awful acting from Sci-Fi Channel movies, but they didn't do bad here. I must say, however, that the minor characters must have went to the Keanu Reeves School of Acting. I'm not one to comment on acting quality like, ever, but Ged's father made me cringe.

And I do indeed hope that King Bad Guy What's His Name chooses his officers based on talent and not charisma, 'cause they all come off as retards. :)

[Bonegavel]

Never read the books but watched the show and thought it was decent for a sci-fi channel backed mini-series.

Was a bit confusing in that I don't understand how magic works in this milieu. At one point it almost seemed Harry-Potterish (stuff at Roke) but aslo you would think that the Arch-Magus would have given lessons on shit not to do, oh, like say raise a dead spirit because it unleashes the ~"unnamed ones."

I may wind up picking the book(s) up because of this mini-series and will completely discount what I'm seeing, but I am a Fantasy/Sci-Fi zealot and love reading well crafted epics.

[Coffee Warlord]

Okay. I retract almost anything good I said about this after part 2 showed.

It ended not with a thud, but a colossal splat.

[Eaglesfan27]

Darn.. I'm watching part 2 now.. hate to hear that.

[cincyreds]

I thought the acting was buddy. Too Cheesy.

Other than Danny Glover who I thought demonstrated the best acting skills, the others were just lacking.

The movie played as if it had, let's see. No heart?

Some of lines the actors were saying just were not very good. And were very poor in terms of delivering and making you believe.

Overall I was disappointed with Earthsea. They could have made it better.

My 2 cents worth.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yep. Glover deserved much better.

The ultimate ending woulda been them in that big room, with Glover suddenly appearing. Then that bigass door would break open...with Mel Gibson stepping out. They both look at each other, nod, and proceed to tacnuke every island.

It reminded me a lot of like...a b-movie Harry Potter or some shit.

[Bonegavel]

They failed the ultimate goal of story-telling - making characters about which you care.

At first I just thought they didn't have enough time in 4 hours (actually 3, I guess with commercials) but that is longer than most regular movies.

Then, I thought it was some of the bad acting or horrible graphics.

Ultimately, it was just bad writing.

When he left home in the begining with Ogion, did the sad music have an effect on you when he turned around for the last time on his girlfriend? No. They should have played up that relationship more to at least make his leaving a bit more sorrowful.

You were actually glad he got away from his bad-acting father. Couldn't watch that guy another second.

The Harry-Potter scenes at Roke were so predictable I almost vomited.

I got no sense of wonder over magic. It seemed that any tom, dick, or harry potter could use it. Oops, I raised the dead.

Villain was **yawn** cookie cutter. Oh my god! He killed his insider priestess!

Overall, I think there was a lot they could have done to make this more intruiging but they seemed to have a woodie to make a low budget Lord of the Rings : Frodo Potter Goes Wild.

Still, I may pick up the books.

[Eaglesfan27]

I ultimately found these two movies lacking, but they were a nice background while playing FM (as I was uninterested in exclusively watching the 2nd part by 30 minutes in.) The ending was terrible IMO. However, I am now interested in the books as well.