July 14, 2007
Tales from Earthsea Movie Review
After the gross disappointment of the Earthsea mini-series, I was extremely excited about the potential of a Studio Ghibli movie. I purchased it through JBox at the first opportunity and watched the official subtitle the day it arrived at my door.
I loved the Earthsea books as a child. Le Guin wove such a beautiful world in those books and I wanted to be able to see it. I loved how everything revolved around the sea and how the many races and cultures in Earthsea had such rich history.
Unfortunately I did not see any of these things in Tales from Earthsea.
The sea was marginal, only an afterthought. The slavers lost their ships. Sparrowhawk's ship had about 5 seconds on screen. The exchange between Sparrowhawk and the cloth merchant (about whether or not a cloth was actually from Gont) was as far as I could tell the only mention of other cultures or places. I'm not even going to touch the issue of color. I think Le Guin has already done that far more gently than I could.
The villains were laughable and we never had a good idea of what they were actually going to do to threaten the world. Sure, Cob babbled something about "opening the door between life and death" but we did not see the dry land and Cob showed no hints that he could or had done anything to cause magical trouble there. Cob's goons were absolutely laughable. They were treated as caricatures, stereotypically evil, and cowardly when they couldn't overbear someone with force. They were not people. They were two dimensional cardboard cutouts shoved in to serve a shallow point in the story.
Arren's Shadow sub plot was practically incomprehensible (I really have no idea why they thought that was a good idea at all). There was no hint as to what had fractured his personality to such an extent or driven him to murder, and there was no direct resolution of any but the most mental levels. I'm not sure if I even believed in the mental resolution as the character portrayal in that scene was very stilted.
The sword Arren carried was never explained. Sparrowhawk commented at one point that it was forged with magic and that he doubted Arren could open it. No one every mentioned why Arren couldn't open it. When he drew it near the end my thought was, "Oh lovely, and he's achieved what now? Why should I care if no one has told me anything about what it means?"
Cob started out as a promising villain and got incomprehensible and stupid near the end.
His first major action was to attempt to kill a minion who had "failed him". I was not deeply impressed by this weak and stupid ploy to make him look classically evil. It did not help that he really had no depth to his fear or passion. His rants were unimpressive to say the least and other than the fact that he was a wizard with goons at his beck and call, I could not feel at all worried about him.
I'm going to mention two minor characters, because I think their treatment was absolutely disgusting and shameful. The two old women who visited Tenar for a fever remedy were so strongly stereotyped that I felt them to be offensive. Just like the goons there was no attempt to make them int people with real motivations and desires. I can't believe that they didn't look even worse for Japanese audiences. The old biddies had no trace of tatemae/honne, they were just utter self serving bitches the whole time they were on screen.
On the whole, the movie lacked the beautiful movements of Miyazaki's movies. His son obviously does not understand how one captures the physical habits and quirks of really people. Goro's people moved like dolls and often did or said things in a way that was "convenient" to his plot, but did not feel very realistic. This may seem like a small thing, but to me it is one of the great and beautiful joys of his father's movies.
The important speech (with the "moral" of the story) was given three times. Sparrowhawk to Arren, then Therru to Arren, and finally Arren to Cob. This was really a bit much. We the viewers really didn't need to be banged over the head with it like this. I understand why Le Guin felt "the film's 'messages' seem a bit heavyhanded".
After watching the last ten minutes of the movie, I was wondering if someone had slipped some hallucinogenic drugs into my water when I wasn't looking. It was just that incomprehensible. I still don't understand what was up with the dragon (needed at least a little foreshadowing) or what Cob was really threatening us with other than immediate bodily harm (scary but hardly world shattering). I didn't understand why much of the chasing around the castle ramparts was needed or why on earth Arren though he might have a chance to live after going back to face the murder he had committed.
In the end this movie did not leave me frothing at the mouth the way the mini-series did, but it left me with a deep feeling of disappointment and sadness. It wanted to be a much better movie, but when it came down to it it just wasn't. There were too many poorly developed characters and too many poorly thought out plot decisions. I didn't believe the characters grew or came together or learned anything. I didn't believe the villains were a real threat to the world. I didn't see a glimpse of the Earthsea that I love (which would not have required those other things to be fixed).
Mr. Miyazai, your son was not ready to make a movie. His movie is not worthy of the Studio Ghibli imprint. He has a long way to go if he wants to be a good movie maker, never mind a great one.
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