Critique

As a Sci-Fi mini-series, this film isn’t as bad as it could be. However, the film strays pretty far away from the content of the original two books that it combines in order to make up much of the story. At some level, the two are so different that one could almost consider them separate entities entirely. 

Which brings me to the real critique. The writing quality of the film isn’t really that great. There are a lot of elements added in order to make the television appeal higher, like sex, conspiracy, murder, etc. that aren’t in the original story, and mostly make the film seem cheesy rather than creating a dramatic appeal. The lines that the characters deliver are predictable and often don’t add much to the story as a whole. It’s almost as if the script is based off of a formula or checklist for the elements that need to be in a fantasy film in order to make it successful. However, rather than adding to the story, they make it seem forced and fake.

The Earthsea stories aren’t compelling in the same kind of way that other epic fantasy tales are, and so they don’t really translate well to film. Unlike the Narnia stories or Lord of The Rings, the tales of Ged are more of an account of the various things he did as a wizard, and don’t have the same kind of major build to the ultimate climax. 

If you do want to watch it, be prepared for a very, very long (3 hours) movie that moves at a slow pace and will often make you cringe at the bad CG or cheesy dramatic sequences.