Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Edwayne & Layla Hutton I did not read the books, and I can understand where those who have would be upset; but at the same time most people who do enjoy a book are upset when they watch the movie of that book. A movie can never meet up to your own imagination take that as a complement but at the same time accept it as the truth and lower your standards of what you imagine something should be. This movie grabbed my attention throughout and was an excellent adventure and story for anyone who enjoys a good one. I did not find the actors mediocre or anything of the sort. On a scale of TV movies I found it to be the one of the best I have seen and would give it a 10 on a scale on movies in general I rate it pretty high in keeping me involved in the plot and would rate a 8. I believe those who are expecting this to play out like a book did in there mind are missing this for what it is a great, entertaining, enjoyable film. I recommend giving it a chance and you might find yourself enjoying it as much as I did, so much so I came here in search of any sequels to come.

fandyllic First I will admit, I did not watch the whole mini-series all the way through and jumped around bit after the first part because I was so disappointed. I will also add that I've read the books a few times, so my expectations were probably high, especially after Lord of the Rings.Before I give my comments on the mini-series, after reading the various comments from other viewers, I'm convinced the standards of viewers have dropped and the shallowness of the average viewer cannot be overestimated. There is no way this mini-series should rate above a 5 of 10.The acting was not bad, but I did get the sense that most of the cast was completely unfamiliar with the books and the stories. The whole series felt mundane and unoriginal. The fresh minimalism of the Earthsea series was lost in the typical fantasy treatment given to the stories. As a reader, I was also disappointed in the casting and the dramatic differences between the books and the mini-series.You could tell from the casting and the way situations were changed in the mini-series that the producers were trying for a younger audience used to Harry Potter and other highly derivative fantasy works (the J.K. Rowling fans will want to murder me, of course). The books could be considered slow by today's standards, but the had an undercurrent of sadness that made them more powerful. The aura of the books was completely lost in the mini-series. There was no sense of history like you feel when watching Lord of the Rings or some of the better fantasy movies (Dragonslayer, say).The 3 stars I give the mini-series comes from the generally good production values and the commitment to making a mini-series rather than trying to compress the whole series into 2 hours or so. I would have preferred that they had just made a 2 hour movie perhaps compressing the first two books, than the radical changes and alterations that were made for the mini-series. In short, it was a typical Hollywood-corrupted production that had so much promise only to be ruined. Overall though, the mini-series was a below average effort for such a promising story. The producers of the mini-series should have just said it was "inspired" by Earthsea and used a different name. A decent example of this type of thing is the recent Sci-Fi channel mini- series, "Tin Man". They didn't call it Oz anything and totally re-imagined Wizard of Oz. It wasn't great, but much better than Earthsea.One can only hope that the failure of the Earthsea mini-series won't close the door to future attempts to re-imagine the books on film. Lord of the Rings was famously messed up by a partial animated version, so there is always hope.

ohjohnsmall I've read the Earthsea Trilogy ten times. Three small books, but gorgeous, and outshining The Lord of the Rings (which I also love)... rich, thoughtful, vivid. I recommend it to all readers even those who say they have no interest in fantasy.So... I netflixed Earthsea with some trepidation. Rightly so. It's dreadful. The character of Ged is entirely lost from the opening scene. The slangy off the cuff American Accented Dialogue is truly awful. I'm stunned that books so good could be adapted so profoundly badly. 45 minutes is all I can stand. Sorry if you liked it. Please read the books.

zapdude Having just watched this harmless, derivative, typically mediocre production, I was curious how others received it. After reading a few of the comments here, I'm adding mine.First, I have never read an Earthsea book. Therefore, all I perceived was a rather middle-level "typical" fantasy story. I got a kick out of what I thought was a cheesy ripoff of Harry Potter at the wizard's school, it was so clearly a copy that it would have been laughable at any time.The acting and production values were, simply, typical Hallmark. Not great, not awful, just bread-on-the-table pulp of the sort that keeps people employed.If you look at the entire Fantasy/Science Fiction film industry, there are rarely any that are actually better, and many that are a LOT worse (notably better: Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, notably worse: 2001's Planet of the Apes) Now that I've said that, if I had been an Earthsea fan, I probably would have been just as furious and felt just as betrayed as anyone commenting here. Clearly, only fans of a book or series should be involved in producing movie versions.