Did anyone else actually watch this horrible butchery of the books? I watched most of the first night and was really confused, then infuriated, and then bored and changing the channel. To me, it bears a striking resemblance to Starship Troopers or I Robot in that the names and places are mostly the same, but not much else is. Of course, my opinion is less important than that of the author (slate.msn.com) and she seems to think that this was an abomination.
Originally posted by Ursula K. LeGuinOn Tuesday night, the Sci Fi Channel aired its final installment of Legend of Earthsea, the miniseries based—loosely, as it turns out—on my Earthsea books. The books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than 30 years ago, are about two young people finding out what their power, their freedom, and their responsibilities are. I don't know what the film is about. It's full of scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an entirely different plot, so that they make no sense.
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When I looked over the script, I realized the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence.
I didn't bother to watch the second night because I couldn't find enough desire to watch one of my favorites be so horribly mutilated. If you are interested in seeing how atrociously bad this is, and I haven't said word one about either the acting or the dialog which were both wooden in the extreme, it will be on again (scifi.com) on 12-19 at 7 and 9.
Tim
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. -- Erasmus
You know, I had much the same reaction. I taped it both nights, but found myself sleeping through the first night - I was tired. I can enjoy a movie based on a book, but different from the book (say hello to the Wizard of Oz), so I will get around to watching this sometime. But yeah, I read Ursula's rant and suspect it's not much like the books.
My daughter, who was watching it and hasn't read the books, seemed to be enjoying it.
Not enough to miss Amazing Race the next night tho....
(wow, my self-imposed exile last about two days - excellent!)
I thought the miniseries was OK. I have not read the books so I don't know how off it was. Probably at least as off as the Riverworld movie was off from the books. Hopefully the books have an actual well you know ending instead of a really vague fading out of the plot.
Marge I am just trying to get into heaven not run for Jesus.