Well done... Kudos!

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2001)

I'm one of the "holdouts" who hasn't read the books (I like Ursula K. Leguin's "Earthsea" series, so I figure I'd enjoy this story, although it's somewhat derivative of "A Wizard of Earthsea"). Anyway, I kept wishing I was 10 years old when I saw this, because I would have enjoyed it more. Still, the film was undeniably magical, the CGI/Special effects weren't overdone (or were seamless enough to blend in), and the acting was excellent.
Agreed with other reviewers that the film never "soars" and never fully achieves what it could, but attribute this to squeezing so much plot into the film's running time. If this movie is as faithful to the book as I understand, then it's a rarity -- "Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" are two others that manage to be faithful to the book, yet in the former case somehow outdoes the book (may be the first and only time).
Anyway, I'm rambling. This film was magical & entertaining, especially for kids. I think it suffers only from the fact that expectations were set too high due to hype, and the unbelievable popularity of the books. You just can't expect a film to live up to the potential of the book, especially if the book is tremendously good -- it's patently unfair to judge a film based on that criteria. 9/10.