I watched the rest of EarthSea last night, and I have several thoughts about it.
First, the director must have been a fan of the EarthSea books. You can tell because he allowed an amazing amount of detail from the book to fill in the parts of the movie that made no sense. It’s as if he applied his book knowledge to the characters in the movie, and as a result, those parts are missing.
For example, Ged seems kind of impetuous, but we don’t get the feeling that he’s as careless as the book might have portrayed him as being. In his turning point when he accidentally summons the nameless one, it’s as if we’re supposed to understnd that a major turning point has been reached in his life. But I’m not sure how we’re supposed to get that from what’s shown in the movie.
There are also details missing from the movie, which rolls into my second point. What the heck happened when he was summoning that woman form the dead? How did he end up summoning a nameless one? Did someone explain that and I missed it?
Also of note: Kristen Kruek is a poor actress. Poor in the way that Keanu Reeves is poor. He is what he is and he can’t pretend to be anything else. Same for her. In her benefit, she has a pretty face and can remember lines. But whatever she was doing in EarthSea is the same whispery Lana Lang character/voice she does in Smallville.
And just what great thing does Isabella Rosselini bring to this movie? She’s not a poor actress, but she didn’t really light up the movie. Her nor Danny Glover were exceptional.
I make it out to seem awful, and it really wasn’t, but it didn’t live up to all of the hype I’ve been hearing since October. That’s disappointing. I wonder if the books are really any better.
