I thought it seemed rushed and lacked any serious character developement. It seemed to follow the standard formula and nothing was left to suprise. When it ended I felt like I was at the halfway point. I was semi entertained but over all I left with a sense of disappointment. Then I perked up because I remembered I only paid matinee prices and the popcorn was great.
I heard it was some 15 year old kid who wrote and marketed it online and now he is rich. I just didn't want to influence people directly about my feelings on the film so I put it in spoiler tags.
Its a kids movie right? We have Eric's son this weekend, so if it isn't complete crap, maybe we'll take him.
Lalanae Burundi High Chancellor for Tourism, Sodomy and Pie
Unofficial Canadian, Forbidden Lover of Pie, Jesus-Hatin'' Sodomite, President of KFC (Kyoukan Fan Club), hawt, perververted, intellectual submissive with E.S.P (Extra Sexual Persuasion)
I never read the book, so i didnt have any expectations about this movie, so ill be generous and give it 4 out of 10. And thats one point for the digital effects on the dragon, and one for the scenery.
I saw it with a friend, and we agreed on just about all of this after seeing it, both being pretty dissapointed about the movie.
VERY cliché based, stole with arms and legs from Star Wars and LOTR, hell, i swear that if someone digitally replaced that guy that played Eragon in his "im a whiny farmer boy" part of the movie (which were all but the last 20 min or so), with Mark Hamilll clips from the first Star Wars movie, noone would even notice.
Basically it was Star Wars - A New Hope in an adventure world, apart from the sorcerer guy actually dying in the end, which Darth Vader didnt (and if he come back in the 2nd book/movie, im gonna puke), with scenery and a few ideas stolen from Lord of the Rings, like the reversed scene where Eragon have to get the poisoned princess to the elves...ooh, sorry, the Varden.
The acting was horrible, as mentioned before. Mark Hamill could get away with it back in 1977, but people expect better nowadays.
As for John Malkovich, normally im happy to see him in a movie, but here it was nice to only see him in a few short scenes, he overplayed so badly it almost became comical.
And for the ones of us that didnt know it was a book, and expected a finished movie, just an extra fuck you at the end. Not like in Pirates of the Carribian 2, where i just saw the ending and already looked forward to Pirates 3, but in Eragon, i sat and wondered if it should bother to see the 2nd (if it ever comes out) to know the ending, or just leave it and see/read something better, which shouldnt be hard
To be fair, the scenery was nice, lots of riding though nature and on hills stuff like in LOTR, and they found some really nice areas.
And the dragon was REALLY nice, that was really the only good thing about the movie, but not anywhere near enough to save it, since there were only that one dragon, a full blown dragon fight might have pulled it up to 5 stars out of 10
So if you want to see this movie, for gods sake dont waste cash on seeing it in a theater, rent it on DVD, or even better, watch Star Wars or LOTR again, that will be a much better experience.
"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich"
Lalanae Burundi High Chancellor for Tourism, Sodomy and Pie
Unofficial Canadian, Forbidden Lover of Pie, Jesus-Hatin'' Sodomite, President of KFC (Kyoukan Fan Club), hawt, perververted, intellectual submissive with E.S.P (Extra Sexual Persuasion)
I have read the book, and despite the book being a boring "let's go here, then here, then here, then end up at our destination" read, it was much better than the movie. The book is pedantic and boring; the movie made it look like a Pullitzer.
Eragon has this unfortunate occurence of passing out every time he uses magic: "Oh noz, we're in a bad spot, no chance of living, thank goodness I can draw from my inner reserves of magic to defeat the invading hordes of foes coming at me! Oh noz, now that I've vanquished all my enemies, I'm going to faint." Paolini, the author (who yes, was young when he wrote the books), has no sense of how to wrap up a battle: the characters get into bad situations, and then, because he doesn't think the battles through, just uses this pass-out magic as a savior to actually having to wrap up the conflicts.
Another note about Paolini: his two parents are publishers. There is internet scuttlebutt that his parents wrote the book and put it in his name because teenage authors are all the rage. That's unsubstantiated, of course, and it may be the reaction of jealous authors. However, his books, in my opinion, just aren't that good.
The only pluses to this movie were Jeremy Irons and the dragon. The flight scenes with the dragon's perspective are amazing and made me wish that I had my own; the sheer rush I got just by watching it made me nostalgic and envious that he could do it, so in that regard, they got that feeling right. Jeremy Irons played Brom (or Bronn, couldn't remember; Bronn is a character in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series so I may have been hearing it wrong on purpose), and that was a treat as always. Everything else was rushed, horribly butchered, or so out of place that it didn't make sense.
But don't worry! You only have to wait and watch the next two movies out of his expected trilogy to find any sort of resolution! GG another 14 bucks to see a cheap imitation fantasy. My advice? Go watch Lord of the Rings, and be sad that the greatest fantasy epic we will ever see has already come and gone.
I don't blame the author so much as I blame the producer and director. They could have changed things around. The kid who wrote it probably only had limited creative control.
A friend and I go to movies every Sunday, and we're both usually pretty open-minded about seeing movies that one suggests and the other has no interest in. When the preview for this came on (a couple months ago), I went "Oooh!" and she said "ABSOLUTELY NOT! No Dragon movies!!"
Looks like it was a good call.
"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."- Barack Obama
I liked the Star Wars that came out in 1977 better.
I haven't seen the movie, but I've read the first book and a synopsis of the second. It has to be the most utterly plagiarized piece of successful modern literature in existence. And it was still bad. But maybe my feelings on its quality stem from the fact that I read it after just blasting through A Game of Thrones to A Feast For Crows.
Either way, its unoriginality is disgusting given all the praise and commercial success it has garnered.
I just finished reading the book last week, and I actually liked it. My friend has the 2nd one and I'll be borrowing it from him shortly (when he finishes it), and the 3rd I hear comes out soon. I don't look forward to ever seeing the movie (although I'd watch it just to compare/complain), but I enjoyed the change of pace from the D&D rule-based books I normally enjoy (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms etc.).
I would put the book in the same ballpark (though not quite as good/well-written) as the Brian Jaques books in the Tales from Redwall series. When reading it I didn't pick up on any of the Star Wars (etc.) likeness. It may be how it is portrayed in the film.
All of the SW comparison stuff was around way before the film was even vomited into script form. I read this book a year and a half ago, and most of the way through I was laughing at the plagiarism rampant in this book. My girlfriend recommended it to me, and I just couldn't bring myself to tell her how unoriginal I thought it was. It was an okay read entertainment-wise, but definitely young adult/adolescent oriented. I can see that group of readers especially not drawing parallels like older readers might or anyone intimate with SW ep4...I also know many readers of all ages simply ignore or don't care about any of it. I'm not one of them...
I haven't seen the movie, and have absolutely no desire to but based on just reading the book here are some things that compare to SW:
Whiny farm boy living with uncle meets with an old man (can't remember if he's a hermit but he IS in hiding or at least his real identity is) that is somehow connected to his father and major events unfolding in the realm.
He finds an egg that was smuggled to safety by a member of a rebellion. It's wanted by the empire. HMM!? It hatches a quirky dragon that becomes his adventuring companion...ANY similarity to a pair of droids (that aren't the ones you're looking for) must be pure coincidence...
Uncle dies in an empire attack, boy escapes with hermit + droid.. er dragon...and is told he has great power to affect the world. That's being vague, to be more specific - he has A GREAT POWER that is very reminiscent of another GREAT FORCE that is in ALL OF US.
He is given a badass sword (legendary actually) by old man in hiding that was wielded by another powerful individual...this individual happened to be a member of a powerful order that used the A GREAT POWER to protect the realm.
Did I mention old hermit guy happens to be a former member of aformentioned powerful order, and is hiding from the empire? He attempts to start training whiny farm boy on swordplay and the use of his A GREAT POWER, but ends up dying somewhere along the way.
Said order had been pretty much decimated as the empire came to power, and anyone remotely resembling them or that might be showing latent A GREAT POWER(s) is hunted...the only publicly remaining dude with A GREAT POWER is the king of the empire. I'm pretty sure this guy does NOT have a breathing problem.
There's plenty more (yes there is a Han Solo and Princess Leia archetype in there)...but I'll leave that for you to figure out.
Apologies if chronolgy of any of that is out of whack. Needless to say, I'll pass on this flick.
I'm surprised. I knew it was not going to be a good movie- it was made because of the success of shit like LoTR and Harry Potter. However, I did think it would be watchable and mildly entertaining as a rental. Thanks for the warning- I don't even want to waste a Netflix on this shit.
Lol Sartori, you hit the nail on its head. This book was Episode 4 with dragons and swords. I wish I had my money back from when I went to see this in the theater.
I'm all for fantasy making its way to the big screen, to video games, to television. The more that is out there, the more it becomes mainstream entertainment. But when it's crap to this level of magnitude, even I must say..."GO AWAY."
I am assuming the A GREAT POWER is magic (?) but there are numerous people in the book who wield magic, and most do it in the public, indeed for the public.
If the A GREAT POWER is the dragon, well... it's a fucking dragon. If I had a dragon at my side I doubt there would be much fear of anything in me. I would say, definately, a dragon is A GREAT POWER. I would also say that it makes sense for the king to want to coerce the lad with the dragon into joining his side, or, barring that, kill the lad and the dragon.
His badass (legendary) sword is no more badass than any other elven blade. It isn't magical, it is just made by hands that are far superior at crafting. It is "said" the blade will never dull. In the sparce combat of the book it is hardly put to the test.
And I don't recall Han Solo being the spurned son of a dead evil father, as I recall he was a smuggler.
Certainly, if you try hard enough you can link this book to Kevin Bacon in less than 5 steps.
Al wrote:I guess I'm in denial. I don't see the relation even after you pointed it out. It seems to me you are seeing the relation because you wanted to.
I think the denial part is the right answer. It is almost impossible to miss the similarities.
WHERE do you get that I am referring to the dragon? The A GREAT POWER is his mystical magical force-like power. I may be wrong as it's been a couple years, but even the explanation of what it IS harkens to the FORCE. It's never explained as magic in the first book (that I remember), and if there is anything further fleshing it out in the second book - well I didn't bother even cracking that book open so whatevah. Personally, I like how this A GREAT POWER is Eragon's cheap way out of most of the difficult situations he can't handle in book one...OMG I'm about to get my ass beat...wtf is this power that I feel - BOOM!!! (passes out, wakes up later Frodo Baggins style).
The sword is legendary, it's super sharp blah dee blah, was gifted to him by the old man (if I remember right). I'm not saying the thing eats souls and shits gold here. A sword that never dulls? If I'm a warrior, I sure could use one of those. It also belonged to a jedi..I mean dragon rider. It might as well glow blue and hum when he unsheathes it IMO. The only thing that sucks about it is when he whips it out it draws some unwanted attention. I dunno where I've seen that before.... ?
I never said anything about Han Solo other than that archetype IS present in the book. Where'd I mention anything about him being the spurned son of a... hmm, who is reading more into stuff than they should and drawing their own conclusions here?
What I've posted is just general consensus of I'd say at least half the reviews, opinions, and critiques of this book/movie/story I've encountered on the internet, and in real life discussions with friends. I may be biased, but at least I persevered and read the book. It wasn't absolutely terrible, just nothing great in my opinion. If you really like it that much, more power to you.
┌┘ Miir
