Eragon Reviews
The early Eragon reviews are coming in, and let’s just say they’re not as good as I was hoping for. You’ve got to understand that I’m a Sci-Fi and Fantasy movie nut, so every time one comes out I hope that it’s amazing. Add on top of that the fact that I LOVE this cast. But, you can’t win them all… and so far the critics aren’t loving this thing at all.
Here is what some of the critics are saying in their Eragon reviews:
“Eragon is based on a book by a 19-year-old with a script that seems to have been written by a 12-year-old.”
Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star“Eragon - that’s Dragon with an E (instead of a D), or Era Gone, without the E. Both are wordplays that perhaps give a clue to the workings of the 15 year old author’s mind.”
Urban Cinefile“A load of generic mush perhaps best served as a piece of bitchin’ ’70s van art.”
Andrew Wright
And it’s not just these guys. Many film pundits who have seen this flick aren’t exactly giving it rave reviews at the moment. No one seems to HATE this movie… but not many seem to like it either. As of this moment Eragon is holding a 40%… yikes. I hope that number picks up. I’m seeing it tonight.
68 Comments, Comment or Ping
Pedro
i saw it yesterday night and found it to be a copy in so many things from Lord of the RIngs trilogy that´s sad…Loved the dragon as a animation object but hated the battle scenes and the hole storyline… I was actually excited with the trailer but it was so deceiving seeing the hole film…and to think it´s another trilogy…no way i´m seeing the other two!
Dec 14th, 2006
JOE
hey John
those review sound more like they hate the book and its author than what they actually thought of the movie.
Dec 14th, 2006
John Campea
Hey JOE,
These are film critics… I doubt any of them have read the book
:P
Dec 14th, 2006
Meli
You know it doesn’t surprise me the critics aren’t liking it isn’t often that they like this sort of film. I’m not expecting anything more than a fun fantasy tale to veg out to for a couple of hours. Honestly, to go into this movie expecting more, I feel, is a big mistake.
Dec 14th, 2006
Red Steven
“A load of generic mush perhaps best served as a piece of bitchin’ ’70s van art.”
I had no interest in this movie until I read that quote.
Dec 14th, 2006
Drewbacca
Thanks for four posts in a row of cut and pasting of Rottentomatoes
Dec 14th, 2006
The Black Guy
I wanted to like this one so much….disappointed already…
Dec 14th, 2006
Sean
Soooooooooooooooooooo, does Drewbacca have anything to add, or was he indeed just here to bitch about something totally unrelated to the topic at hand?
I thought this movie was going to be amazing because the source material is so good. Yeah I loved the book. But the more I saw, the more I got worried that it would disapoint. Oh well, I’ll be there tomorrow night to see it anyway. Give my thoughts at that point.
Dec 14th, 2006
igl
Well, I heard that a movie is being made, so I bought and read the book. WTF! People actually love this book. There’s a million cliches on first 10 pages. The story in unoriginal. Absolutely nothing new. And I enjoyed it a bit :) And I cant see the book on the big screen anyway. After watching several clips from the movie and reading a couple of reviews, I’ll skip it in cinemas.
Dec 14th, 2006
Jay
I’m still hopeing to be entertained.
It might just be for the eye candy but i still think it’ll be fun
Dec 14th, 2006
Marina
Ugh. I was hoping for more than this. I really was. At this point, I guess I’ll settle for mediocre fun at the movies over the weekend. Looking forward to seeing what you have to say about it. Hopefully it’ll be better than the abomination that was the D&D movie.
Dec 14th, 2006
alfie
empire magazine were the harshest I have seen so far…they gave it one star and said it is pretty much awful.
Dec 14th, 2006
Kristina
Is this flick even rated yet? All the ads I’ve seen on TV keep saying “not yet rated”.
Dec 14th, 2006
miles
miles is not suprised.
Dec 14th, 2006
miles
but, you never know. i haven’t seen the movie…maybe i will just love it when i see it.
Dec 14th, 2006
Norddeth
Nor is Nord surprised, Ive been tight lipped on this one, but just from the trailers this movie looked like shit from beggining to end, but I too ama Sci-Fi nut and have been secretly hoping…but alas, things to do not look good. I would say with the exception of LotR and Willow, what is it about Fantasy movies that make it so hard to get.
Oh and Legend, that was a damn fine movie too.
Nord
Dec 14th, 2006
verbal
How do you rate a film with a 15 y/o that’s got a betwen his thighs? Hm…
The thing with this movie is, that whatever the book critics accused the book of, the filmmakers didn’t bother setting straight. And what’s left, isn’t very well made either. So the movie pretty much sucks…
Dec 14th, 2006
verbal
a film with a 15 y/o that’s got a dragon betwen his thighs, that is…
Dec 14th, 2006
wolf
I’m not one bit suprised. The trailer didn’t do a thing for me. The movie just looked lame to me. Even thought it’s only on 40% right now, I bet it will do well in the box office.
Dec 14th, 2006
xplod
(First of all, sorry for my english)
The movie is awful, the characters are just empty, the dialogs are very very stupid and simple.
For those who read the book, don’t even come near the movie. This is not the case of an adaptation of the book… this is an all new story and completly ridiculous.
This isn’t Eragon…. this is Dungeons & Dragons III(or is it four?)
Dwarfs don’t appear in the movie… elfs don’t appear in the movie…. Urgals are simply humans with red eyes. A character named Angela is discrible in the book as an old lady, the actress who plays this character in the movie has something like 23 for years old.
The only good thing in the movie is the CGI for Saphira.
I left the theater with the sensation of someone who had been stolen.
Dec 15th, 2006
miles
nordeth:
the problem with this piece of fantasy in particular is that the source material was complete fucking garbage that was not worth the paper it was printed on.
want good fantasy? read a song of ice and fire by george martin
Dec 15th, 2006
anonymousbrain
I’ve read the book and saw the movie last night… so I know what I’m talking about when I say..
THE MOVIE WAS GOOD!!
The books were great and the movie, for what it was, was good.
There were no dwarfs, elves, and the urgals were just humans for one simple reason.. THEY DIDN’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE LORD OF THE RINGS!!! The second they put in elves, or dwarfs or Urgals that look like Uraki (sp?) they would immediatly hear”Lord of the Rings Rip-Off!!!” “ERAGON=LORD OF THE RINGS REDUX” “Lord of the Rings without Peter Jackson!!!”
Also, you most of you forget that this movie is PG and an hour and half long. That limits violence/story/action. They only so much they could do it the time allowed. Not to mention the computer graphics were pretty darn good. The dragon looked great (watch the scene of the dragon on the cliff at sunset…beautiful).
For a fantasy movie that was directed at children.. it was a good movie. Some of story slips by fast, but they couldn’t exactly make a 3-hour movie for kids could they?
-AB
Dec 15th, 2006
alfie
I saw it last night. Absolutely terrible.
Forget people talking about it being a LOTR rip off…it is pretty much the exact same story line as a new hope. It is a .weird star wars/lotr crossbreed….make that inbred as this film is severely mentally retarded
For starters the hero was painfully bad. Probably one of the worst lead characters I have seen in any film. I just wanted the dragon to accidently set him a blaze. He has zero charisma and I have a feeling we won’t be seeing him headlining another4 big budget film anytime soon. Unless this does well enough for a sequel but I will be shocked if this is a huge hit. Word of mouth will destroy this thing very very fast.
The only thing it had going for it was some decent effects……..but other than that this is a painful reminder that fantasy is not something just anyone can do. This film pretty much represents every bad cliche people have about fantasy films and sums up why for so many years they were treated as jokes. All the interviews I read with the cast and crew they keep talking about how they don’t want to be compared to LOTR - and now having seen the film they have no worries there!! Nobody will be comparing this to those films.
It is as bad as dungeons and dragons but at least dungeons and dragons gave the pleasure of seeing one of the wayans die on screen!!! It is sloppy and rushed…and truly dreadful. Play a drinking game everytime a major plot point is ripped straight out of star wars…you will be fucking hammered by the first half hour and then at least you won’t be sober to suffer through this films wretchedness.
looks like hollywood saved the worst till last as this is definitely the worst film I have seen this year. Terrible.
Dec 15th, 2006
alfie
and I see it has plummeted to a 13% RT rating. totally deserved
Dec 15th, 2006
samantha Calver
I thought that the film was alright.
they cut the wrong points out nd didnt introduce soooooooo many important carechters. i really like the book and i think that if they had made it longer it would hav been better.
the journy seemed so short and they changed alot
it was definitly a dissapointment for aany fan of the book.
Dec 15th, 2006
Serridan
Don’t get me wrong the book was great. Loved it, but I don’t know how Paloni would let this out into the public. I would have told the director to start over. They rushed to get it out. Bad idea. So many things were wrong with this movie that i wanted to cry. I just had to shake my head.
Dec 15th, 2006
Slam
A failure of a movie.
Christopher Poalini has written one of the best books that I have ever read, and before going to the movies i was totally excited. Of course within 2 minutes of the movie starting (no exageration) I was dissapointed. Usually when I’m at the theater I dont want a movie to end. Instead, I was counting the moments untill it would. I guess, if i had not read the book the movie would not have been overly bad, but I have, and the movie didnt live up to my excpectations. I was really dissapotinted in the fact that they left so much out. I know all movies based off books have to do this, but do they have to leave out some major details? I don’t know, but the way they switched some things around got me pretty upset and all I could do was stare at my friend and laugh at how stupid the movie was turing out. In my opinion they should have taken much more time on this movie. But hey, I’m excited for the third book, can’t wait really, and I’d rather read that then see the movie anyways. So christopher, keep the book, drop the director.
Slam
Dec 16th, 2006
None
I read the book and loved it..probably my favorite one…I saw the movie last night and have alot to say:
The story line was all mixed up, it was too babyish, unlike the book. In the book the battles are exciting and bloody, but in the movie it’s like a Disney film. I think the movie destroyed the amazing book even though I didn’t find the movie as bad as most people…the trailer to me looked great, but unfortunately those were the best parts. Usually I get sucked into movies, but this time I wasn’t…it was dull.
Dec 16th, 2006
None
I totally agree, Slam.
Dec 16th, 2006
mrs swim
I’ve been eagerly awaiting tonight’s movie debut of Eragon, in spite of some initial reservations from the first previews that Fox completely mangled the story. All I can say is I wish my first instincts had been terribly terribly wrong. They weren’t.
It was awful… AWFUL!! They took a perfectly good, complicated, well developed and political plot and condensed it into almost farcical unthinking action with almost no explanation, aside from the extreme distortion of the backstory. To add to the travesty, they also decided in their great wisdom to take away all of the beauty Paulini so eloquently describes and infuses into his stories. They toned down the incredibly diverse populations contained in Paulini’s story (elves, dwarves, magicians, and werecats to name a few) and made all the ‘good guys’ strictly human. To add insult to injury, they played down the alliance and partnership aspect of the dragon/rider relationship and actually implied that the Rider controlled his dragon like he would a prize horse or dog.
Shame on them!
The one thing they did manage to do right: Saphira’s animation was incredible and they managed to keep most of her essential character traits intact although like the rest of the movie characters, she suffered from the same lack of character development and growth that helped make the book so interesting.
Dec 16th, 2006
Mr. White
Awful movie. I found the book pleasant… not great… pleasant. However, the trash they made out of the story in the movie reflect badly on the book, which now seems less than pleasant to me. What a travesty this movie is!
Dec 16th, 2006
International G
I just got back from seeing this movie, and yes I can see the SW likeness but the story has been told in several ways SW is just the best and most popular but the kid did write an enjoyable book. now that said the movie has been UTTERLY destroyed even if Jackson hadn’t made the best movie since Willow (not to mention that the D&D name has been fucked by adding a Wayons and may not recover for a while) they took Three I SAID THREE main characters out of the movie in the first half hour, and some of the major events of the movie were changed and distorted. This movie was pushed out too fast for the money and no thought was given to the story. Christopher Paolini sould be disgusted with what was done. The Urgals weren’t Urgals, where the hell were the Dwarves and WHY did the main battle NOT take place INSIDE of a mountain he should sue and or not give permission for Stefen Fangmeier or Peter Buchman to have anything to do with the next film……. IF a next film is even considered.
PS: Peter Jackson was released from his Hobbit commitment (bad mistake)
PPS: I have to apologise for the illiterate BUMB ASSES and their stupid ignorant comments (they don’t know who they are. I mean come on at least use some sort of spell check stupid)that appear here but over all the movie did not do any sort of justice to what a young man with a little more aspirations than the most of us have.
Dec 16th, 2006
Cod
I saw the movie last night and i have to say that it was ok but they left to much shit out of it. I was disapointed after i saw it because they left out the star saphire, they left out the the ending of the book where they all went to ellesmera, they kept it so that arya was still moving until brom died, they left out all the sword play that brom and eragon went through, they left out where he learnt all of his magic, they left out alot of other things, but they did add some things that were not in the book like them jumping off that cliff. I just have to say that i hope the second movie (eldest) is better than the first one.
Dec 16th, 2006
nevermore
I am yet to see the movie(I’m seeing it on wednesday) but have read the book and have been counting down the days untill it’s arrival in cinemas because I loved the books so much, BUT from what I’ve read here and on other pages it seems like the movie was an insult to the brilliant work of Paolini and has completely strayed from the original, dynamic storyline. Is it worth spending my time and money on this movie? or would it be best if the story remained untarnished in my mind?
Dec 16th, 2006
Marianne
Took my kids to see the movie tonight. I did read the book and was excited about the movie. I was disappointed that so much was left out, but I actually enjoyed the movie. My kids (8 and 13) really liked the movie. I do hope that the next movie is better planned before it is released. I had to explain to my kids and our friends that went with us about the parts that were left out. It almost made it seem as though there were quite a bit of empty parts. As for the author, he did a great job. Keep it up Chris.
Dec 17th, 2006
MechoPower
This movie was terrible…if you havent seen it yet…dont waste your money. If you have read the book then definately dont see this movie…other than keeping character names the same, nothing else in the book is here. OMG I want to kill the script writer.
Dec 17th, 2006
nevermore
thanks,
so does anybody actually think this movie is good?
Dec 18th, 2006
adam
Saw this movie tonight,
I was SO excited to see this movie. I haven’t read the book, but I absolutely love a good fantasy movie.
WTF …
I’m normally very generous to movies. But there was hardly any character development. How did Eragon and that other kid become friends? He said like 8 lines the entire movie. How did those two fall in love … or even get attracted to each other? And all the other “Major” characters … I can’t even remember a single one of their names. John Malcavitch … they were probably done shooting his scenes in what … an hour? Seriously … I haven’t seen a movie this rushed in a long time.
The transitions were horrible. There were no dramatic pauses before at all.
“Hey, we need to go rescue this chick I had a dream about.”
“But its on the other side of the kingdom in the other direction!”
“I don’t care, I’m going!”
BLINK
And BAM … we’re there.
Totally stupid. Its like they took all the BIG moments of the book and just hopped from one to the next with no development inbetween.
And next time you pick a lead actor … try not to find one that looks like he’s on the verge of farting every two seconds.
Dec 19th, 2006
Daniel Jarvis
Loved the books great works but dont see the film its rubbish dated a shame really, go watch lord of the rings instead
Dec 19th, 2006
Mrs. Rivers
I thought the movie was absolutey horrible, first of all the author totally sold out his book to whichever film company for a couple million and they destroyed his vision. They changed prettty much all of the plots and left out a lot of important information. I thought the book was excellent, but the movie was horrible. I can understand that they didn’t want to bite off of the lord of the rings, but he had his own vision and was creative of that in his book, he did not follow through and he completely sold out.
Dec 19th, 2006
nevermore
haha funny, i just went and saw the movie(about 30 mins ago) and now im watching lotr. but about the movie…
Here’s my list of what’s wrong with the movie
-Saphira went from baby to full-grown dragon in seconds
-Conversation was non-existant, replaced with simple one-liners badly strung together
-They ruined the best battle scene at the mountain
-Where’s the werecat?
-The entire film was way too rushed
-In the first five minutes of the movie i felt like walking out and going to see casino royale instead
-Arya could not act to save herself, neither could Murtagh
-What happened to introducing characters and referring to their names, not one of my friends who hadn’t read the book knew who they were and didnt have any idea what was going on around them i.e. brom was a storyteller in the town before he left with Eragon, mUrtagh is supposed to be against going to the Mountains but he is the one wh oconvinces Eragon to go….didnt take much convincing did it?
-It felt like the director didnt read the book because it strayed so far from the storyline
-The scene where Eragon and Saphira are together at the end of the battle and Saphira acts like she’s dying was so cringe-worthy it made my friends and i laugh
-I left the movie saying that they should’ve just killed Eragon and Saphira to save another great book from being ruined
-In the book they emphasised the say-out of the “world” where it was set, but in the movie they seemed to overlook every single town he visited
-Since when were there manicurists and hair dressers in alagaesia?(i’m referring to the shade’s laughable appearance)
-The elves weren’t elves and dwarves were human
-Brom didnt die that way
-The mountain was supposed to be grand and beautiful, it was more like a valley full of simple stick bridges that could’ve been better made by a bunch of children
-Roran was in the movie for what? 5 minutes? he left way way way too early
-Everyone got so bored in the movie that food fights broke out and most people were talking
Ok my list is nowhere near finished but you get my point that they really stuffed it. As a movie it was ok, but looking at it from the point of view of somone who has read the book, its was dreadful.
Dec 19th, 2006
nevermore
pedro, please learn how to spell “whole”. There is a difference between hole and whole
Dec 20th, 2006
John Scharrer
The novels are great - I can’t wait for the third book – but, my God, the movie is bad. I don’t think the director has even read the book as the movie only seems to borrow ideas from it. Very disappointing because it had so much potential - a good story and a very good cast - too bad they couldn’t get a director interested in participating. I’ll get the third book but unless they change the director, I’ll skip the rest of the movies.
Dec 22nd, 2006
John Scharrer
One more thought…
It seems the director’s prime directive was to make this movie as short as possible, at all cost. So they cut out plot and characters until it was only 90 minutes long. Job complete they stuck it in theatres and went on to the next project.
If you have read the books, you probably like them as much as I do so my best advice is DON’T SEE THE MOVIE. It will ruin the pictures in your mind – and trust me, they are much, much better than anything the movie has to offer.
Dec 22nd, 2006
Sci fi man
Yeah I saw that Eragon movie and just like everyone said it sucked, a total rip off of LOTR and Starwars and numerous others including Willow, only part I enjoyed was the end battle and some of the cgi, I want to add to who ever said that Willow and Legend were awesome movies, yes you are right those movies rule, so how come they can’t make more like it? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if anything better comes out in the future, I cant wait for the Hobbit, if it ever gets made, and here is a list of sweet books that should be made into movies
The hunters Blade trilogy by R A Salvatore, and The Amber series by Roger Zelazny, and of course they better make the Stainless Steel Rat series into a movie someday that would be sweet. Also the Watershed series by Douglas Niles is sweet, anyway I feel sorry for the kid who wrote the book for selling his soul to fox, if I were him I would have had them do a better job :)
Dec 24th, 2006
Emad
I went to this movie fully acceptant of the fact that it would NOT be like the book. I mean, the book is a much more serious story. Like the baby stuck on the spear on the top of a huge mound of dead bodies, etc, all of which was cut in the movie to make the PG rating. All I asked of it was that it be a GOOD MOVIE! Book (an epic, by the way) aside. I was past such high expectations. I just wanted a GOOD MOVIE.
I didn’t get that. I sat through the first 10 minutes trying to convince myself what was in front of me was true Hollywood entertainment. By the end of the first 15 minutes I was forced to lower my expectations. I was DETERMINED to enjoy this film. So I lowered the bar to: “must be JUST BELOW average movie”.
It wasn’t that either. Despite the excellent cast, despite the beautiful moments of cinematography, and a good score, Fang-whatever-his-name-is sent it all down the toilet bowl. He’s truly a genius. He managed to take a beautiful score and ruin that by overusing it, playing the bloody Opera whenever Eragon so much as pouted (which he did a lot).
He had an epic cast, could have redeemed the short, badly written storyline (which has literally no bearing on the book; you can’t even compare the plots, there’s virtually no connection between the two). But scratch that! He gave Irons and Speeler such god-awful dialogue, there was no way anybody–ANYBODY–could have performed it well. Ridiculous. And now it will reflect badly on the book, because it’s exactly the kind of a sophomoric joke your average teen would write. If they wanna mess up the movie, fine, but it’s like they PLOTTED bad publicity for the novel, which Paolini (the author) worked really hard on and is still working on. They took a very wide, complex script, shaved it down to a few wannabe-cliches (i.e. star wars and lotr), and then said “oh, just forget it!” And put the crap on screen.
It sucked, it deserves to crash. Wasn’t even a good film.
Dec 25th, 2006
J. SHIELDS
I Don’t really care about the ratings or the reviews.
I am just happy to see Tiggy again.
Dec 30th, 2006
JOONAY
To the people who have written their thoughts on the movie, you have no idea how your comments have intrigued me, dont ask what I’m talking about but thankyou very much
Dec 31st, 2006
Garrity
I think you all are missing the point here. Basically the book was awesome and the movie, not so much. Paolini wrote a great fantasy, it’s just a shame that the movie doesn’t reflect it. Anyone who has read his book will notice how different the movie is, even the personality of the main character is wrong. I don’t think anyone should judge his well written book by the incredible disaster that the movie was. The author deserved better.
Jan 1st, 2007
Nevermore
I agree, the movie reflected badly on the book,but it should never be that way and no one should judge the book by the movie. Good on Paulini for being a wonderful author. Though I’m still not sure if he even checked the movie production to see if it was anything like his picture of the story…:P
Jan 6th, 2007
everyday
The book was absolutely amazing (the best book I ever read). I was so excited to see the movie from the moment I first saw the movie poster, months before. I now wish I never went. The movie was insulting to the book and Poalini. It actually upset me and I wanted to scream. A friend of mine disagreed, saying that there were probably money limits and that they couldn’t possibly include everything from the book in the movie.
Then she read the book…..she now feels the same way I do. They had so much potential but they just let it go and the movie is totally different from the book. (ie- Eragon was supposed to be hurt in the end, not Saphira - Murtagh did not want to go to the Varden-and that’s just adding to what others already said, because there’s so so so much more) In the movie, they took out or left out so many characters and events that are SO important to the next book(and maybe movie).-the ra’zac are a very important aspect of the Eldest but Brom and Eragon killed them in the movie. What are they going to do to the second one?! ARGH! Change directors and make sure that the next movie follows Eldest as accurately as possible.(PLEASE!)I agree with most others who commented on this movie. I think it could have been so much more. Don’t see the movie if you want to keep the precious images from the magical book. However, I did like the Jeremy Irons as Brom and, of course, I love Saphira.
I couldn’t believe that the elves, dwarves, and even urgals were all just humans slightly different from each other. So what if they would have seemed like lotr. Lotr was awesome and Eragon(the movie) needed to have the elements from Eragon(the book), even if they seemed a lot like lotr. The plot was twisted and a wonderful story of growing, learning, and friendship was mashed into a movie only about an hour and a half long. (Eragon isn’t supposed to go Poof! form farm boy to completely trained, full-magic using, hero-man. He’s supposed to grow into that person, through experiences completely torn out of the movie. They needed more lines, more action, more experiences and adventure, more time, just MORE! I really wish a new director would take the same cast and re-do the movie into what I had dreamed it would be(a lot better).
Reading the second book, I think about the parts that would be great for the next movie, but then I remember how disappointing the first one was and how parts were left out that are vital to these parts. If I could make movies, I would have made this one differently and actually followed the book. There’s so more I could say, but read the book and you’ll get it. It’s much, much better than seeing the movie. There was SO much wrong with it!
In simple words, the book was magic and the movie was not.
Feb 17th, 2007
Shane59602
Oh the movie is a complete stinker. The critics are a bit too harsh on the author. If they read the books and also watch the movie then they would see the complete hack job that was done to the books to make the movie. They would be the ones saying what were these people thinking or were they just completely drunk when editing the film?
Lets try a little character development, a little thought of being true to the story, and flow. This movie jumped all over and did not tie together. I feel so bad for the author that his great novel was turned into such drivel. The movie has some entertaining qualities but as you read the books and imagine what kind of movie could be made from such a story, then expectations fall far short of reality when it comes to watching it.
I am too sad to continue. What else can be said. I think the author should sue the production company for completely hosing up a good. story.
If You are planning on watching the movie DON’T. SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY for reading the books, or even listening to the audio books on tape or CD. Any form of this story is more worth it than the movie representation.
Please Mr Paolini, Hire someone who will do your story justice if the other novels are to be made into film. Hey Peter Jackson would be the best one to do it so why not?
Mar 20th, 2007
James
This movie was a complete atrocity. I wonder how many possible fans the movie turned off. I almost walked out about 2 minutes in. Personally I think the director should issue a direct apology to Christoper Paolini for ruining his book. It was too short, they left out far too many important events, and as for character development….Where? I’m huge fan of the Inheritance trilogy and was utterly disgusted walking out of the theater. To think we all waited that long to see that piece of junk.
To the director: Please don’t make Eldest!
Mar 21st, 2007
Pexx
possibly the worst movie i have ever seen.
Mar 22nd, 2007
yin
i totally disagree with the fact that the story line sucks. quite obviously alot of people haven’t read the novel. its amazing.
but i have to admit i was dissappointed with the film. but thats what happens to every movie adapted from a novel. think about itm even harry potter wan’t as good as people wanted it to be.
Mar 25th, 2007
Slamdunk
Eragon director should change job!!!, I don’t know what ur tastes are but the acting is horrible, the scenario predictable and to me, it looks more like a movie for 5 years old kids.
0/10
Mar 30th, 2007
Slamdunk
o, n i forgot this point, near the end of the movie, Eragon is like “Higher, they are on the roofs.” then the dragon replied “Can’t! The weight is too much.” … I mean WTF if u excuse my language but did the director go to school or something? at the start of the movie, u c the dragon flying at high speed high u in the sky, doing peaks and circles and now, she cant even carry an extra person at a way lower altitute??? I did say this movie is on a similar level to the Chronicle of Nardia which is way way below average.
Mar 30th, 2007
sng27
I don’t see how anyone could have even romotely enjoyed this movie, because:
If you read the book before watching the movie, then you feel ripped off and pissed off at the director.
or
If you just watched the movie, you were completely confused and you had no idea who was who and what was even happening.
This movie was only an hour and 30 minutes long, which can never do justice to a novel. Some people might say that it was directed toward kids so it couldn’t be too long, but I swear the power ranger movies that I saw when I was 6 were longer than this movie and I would watch those movies all the time. Paulini obviously didn’t direct his book toward kids, so why would kids be the main people watching the movie.
Dispite the movie, I can’t wait for the third book.
Mar 31st, 2007
JaySmack
I read the book. Who are these people saying it was so great? These people must think The Cat in the Hat is a modern classic. All I can say about Eragon the movie, is that it wasn’t a deviation from Paolini’s “vision” (how much vision can a teenager have?) it is precisely what Paolini’s book was: derivative, rehashed concepts from better movies/books, painfully predictable and poorly executed.
As for the book, well I liked this concept better when it was called Star Wars. Paolini’s parents are in publishing, which easily explains how this made it into print. Is it badly written? Yes, it’s a terrbile book. Mainly because we’ve seen it all before and done much better by people with an orginal vision. There’s a reason they don’t let teens write novels -a kid doesn’t have anything to say. All he can do is regurgitate all the elements of every movie and TV show he’s ever seen. In Paolini’s case he didn’t even get that far, he just ripped off Star Wars by borrowing Luke and Obi-Wan, then set it during the time of Lord of the Rings and took the villains and magical races from there, then stole all the draogn-lore he could from Anne McCafferrty’s Dragonriders of Pern.
If I were George Lucas, Anne McCafferty or the estate of JRR Tolkien I would sue the pants off that kid.
Halfway through the first book Eragon is learning to use his magical powers and is killing Orcs -er, I mean Urgals, easily and is even warned not to use his powers or he could level entire towns. Everybody else in the story needs years to get that kind of power and decades to learn how to summon it. Erogon gets it in a few days entirely by accident?
This is what passes for “great storytelling” these days? Well to hell with Tolkien then, let’s let Paolini write the next great fantasy epic, though I would suggest he turn off the DVD of Star Wars he’s no doubt watching and stop cribbing notes from Lord of the Rings. But then he wouldn’t be writing too much, now would he? And we’d all be better off for it.
So let me get this straight. Eragon’s never seen much less ridden a draogn but he finds a dragon egg and is riding the dragon (who grows from one foot long to forty feet long in three months) like he’d been doing it all his fifteen year-old life, he’s never been trained in magic but halfway through the book is casting spells like he was Merlin and although he’s never seen battle he’s kicking butt like a veteran warrior. He’s abandoned by his mother to live with his uncle (like Luke Sykwalker it was on a farm no less!) but then she walks away and never looks back and even thought the bad guys have all this awesome magic they can’t figure out where he is? And although he’s accidently using magic all throughout the book not once did he accidently use it growing up? Obviously there are those in the story who looked at this kid as being “A New Hope” yet nobody saw fit to guard this kid like the world depended on it?
Plot holes and deus ex machina out the ass. Just what I’d expect from a kid who’s parents published the book.
Apr 3rd, 2007
jaguar27t
Lets put the story straight, what fantasy, D&D, of Sci-Fi book out there is truely a work unto itself, its not the Races that make a book, every fatasy book out there has Elves, Orc, Dragons, Dwarfs, Humans, as well as some others. The story is how well the writer can make the readers love the characters. I Loved LoR, in my opinion it will be an all time clasic in ints own way. I read LoR, just like I read Eragon, Loved both books cause I could relate to the characters, their trials and losses, thins that make them who they really are. The things they had to go through to get to be the person they truely are. Any reader out there that read the book, and then heard they were making a movie about the book was expecting a LoR repeat, but only to a point, they were expecting to fall in love with Eragon, not Frodo. You say this is a childs movie, well my brother (10) who didn’t read the book, and sister (12) who did read the book, watched the movie, and before I could watch the movie they both told me that is was “not worth watchig.” So if this was a childs movie they didn’t hit that mark either.
Graphics and scenery both great, loved the Dragon vision. but where are the elfs, dwarfs, or the orcs. Yes in a way it would have looked like LoR but with its own diferences, just like every fatasy book out there. LoR was a steping stone for every great fantasy book out there including but not limited to Eragon, look at the Dragonlance sagas, they had elves, dwarfs, orc, trolls, and any other imaginable fantasy character out there, but do we say that they are a rip-off of LoR. I was soo looking forward to a well writen book being turned into a well scripted and well acted movie, and was sadly disapionted.
But as they say, this is just my opinion. (FYI) I read the book, and just bought the DVD against everything I was told, hoping that they might have been wrong, alas they were RIGHT!!!!
Apr 4th, 2007
james
I SAW ERAGON FOR THE FIRST TIME ON 4-06-2007 AND I REALY
ENJOY WHAT I SAW.BUT I LOVE ANY KIND OF DRAGON MOVIE,MIDEVIL,
AND KNIHTS KIND OF MOVIE SO PLEASE DONT JUGE ME OR THE MOVIE,
DIRECTOR,OR CAST TO MUCH THANKS FOR LETTING ME SHARE MY VEIW.
Apr 7th, 2007
Leumas
The so called stupid REVIEWERs are idiots!!! The movie was ok buy compared to the book it….well..yah…The…omg wth stupid reviewers…..
Apr 8th, 2007
everyday
SNG27, i agree completely…every word… and am totally pissed at the director!..and cant wait for book 3
Apr 14th, 2007
everyday
you too JAGUAR27T
Apr 14th, 2007
HOLLY
OH MY GOD!!! I have just rented the movie, and am bitterly dissapointed!!!!
BESIDES THE FACT THAT THE CHARACTERS HAVE THE SAME NAMES AS IN THE BOOK IT IS NOTHING LIKE IT!!!
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!
1. THE RAZAC WERE KILLED IN SECONDS BY BROM AND ERAGON, AND THEY ARE NOT EVEN DEAD YET IN THE BOOKS!!!!!
2. ERAGON DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHO BROM WAS WHEN THEY MET IN THE FILM, YET IN THE BOOK HE HAS KNOWN HIM SINCE HE WAS A CHILD!!!
3. AND WHAT THE HELL IS THIS MAGICAL GROWING OF SAPHIRA? SHE GREW FROM THE SIZE OF A CAT TO A HOUSE IN ABOUT ONE SECOND, AND IT TAKES THE WHOLE FIRST BOOK FOR THE TO GET THAT BIG!!
4. BROM IS KILLED BY THE RAZAC IN THE BOOK, AND THE SHADE IN THE FILM?!?!?
5. ANGELA IS JOSS STONE FOR GODS SAKE!!! IN THE BOOK ANGELA IS AN OLD WOMAN NOT A TEENAGER!!!
6. THEY DONT EVEN GO TO SEE JEOD IN TIERM IN THE FILM, AND IF THEY ARE MAKING A SECOND FILM HE IS A MAJOR PART IN ELDEST WHEN HE HELPS RORAN, BUT I GUESS THEY WILL JUST CUT RORAN OUT TOO!!!!! GOD HOW LAME!!!
7. DONT EVEN GET ME GOING ON HOW MUCH THEY MESSED UP ARYA!!!
GOD THIS WAS SUCH A DISAPOINTMENT!!!!! I REALLY HOPE THEY ARE NOT THINKING OF MAKING ELDEST ETC. CAUSE THEY WILL REALLY MESS IT UP!!!! AND ELDEST IS SUCH AN AMAZING BOOK!!!!!
WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW IS WHAT CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI THINKS OF THIS GROSS DISTORTION OF HIS BOOK?!?!?!
EVEN HARRY POTTER KEPT THE SAME BASIC STORY LINE FROM THE BOOKS!
SORRY EVERYONE I JUST HAD TO VENT!!! I HAVE NEVER EVEN BOTHERED TO WRITE ABOUT A MOVIE IVE SEEN BEFORE BUT SEEING THIS PIECE OF CRAP HAS DROVE ME TO IT!!!!
CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK!!!??
DID THE DIRECTOR EVEN READ THE BOOK OF THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE HE WAS MAKING?????
WHAT AN IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apr 16th, 2007
HOLLY
oh yeah and i do have to say that i didnt really think eragon was a good book…… but eldest really was a page turner…. im glad christoper paolini pulled his thumb out of his bum before he wrote eldest….. cause it is about 1000 times better than eragon…. so please dont make eldest the movie, cause that really would be a tragedy!!!
Apr 16th, 2007
everyday
a true disappointment to Eragon fans everywhere. :(
Jun 19th, 2007
Dragonslayer
I saw this movie in the theaters. It did not suck, but it wasn’t the best. Bad dialogue, ‘cept from Jeremy Irons, great visuals, greaty battles, but they cut too much out. I hate the director. What a dumbsh*t. Interesting movie though, but I want it to be remade. I give it a 6/10.
May 14th, 2008
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