Eragon
 

Since there's a movie coming out, I thought I'd ask in here. Anyone read the books? I'm wondering if they're worth a shit, since they seem to be hot currently.

There was this book awards show on TV last week. Won an award or two. But the movie reunites Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich. Which is a +.

But in my opinion, It may give Harry Potter and L.O.T.R. a run for their money. Trailer is pretty good as well.

I enjoyed the first book (havn't read any others), but I don't think the kid is the greatest author ever or anything. That said, since it was a rather simple style of writing, I think it will transition pretty well into a movie.

Saw the trailer at casino royale. Looks pretty badass.

Looks like a typical stupid, CGI fest fantasy film that is in style since Lord of the Rings came out.

Looks very shit.

Another film with Irons, another film with dragons, another few years later....its just a CGI evolved D&D piece of shit.

I thought this was just like one of those shitty attempts at fantasy concepts, like "The Covenant", but if it's got Irons and Malkovich involved it could be something good.

Kane Knight's interested, so I'm going to assume there is some substance attached to this shit. Might check it out. :y:

LOL @ Alienoid06

I started reading this, and can confirm what pretty much everyone else's statement of "childlike writing." I'm gonna keep reading, but unlike other "children's" books, I find it more a chore to actually sit down and read it.

Then again, I'm only like 40 pages in, hoping it picks up some.

Looks rather simple to me. A couple of large words. Writing's rather blah.

However, a lot of "Children's Books" are enjoyed by adults.

The trailer shocked me with how good it looked. It looks like this could be the next Harry Potter. Or atleast Harry Potter like movie for those who think they are cooler than Harry Potter.

Looks like a good movie and will shock me if it doesnt do good when it hits.

Well........the kid was like 15 when he started writing it.

Check out this outline of the plot of Eragon....or should I say Star Wars? (spoilers obviously but who gives a shit)

A boy of foggy origins lives with his uncle in a remote place of a vast empire headed by an evil Emperor and his right hand man, who was once prominent in an ancient order of guardians with mystical powers.

Through fate or luck, depending on your point of view, this boy comes into the possession of an object vital to a rebellion against the Empire; this object was inadvertently sent to him by a princess in the rebellion, who had attempted to send said object to an old man who once belonged to the same order of guardians as the Emperor’s right-hand man.

This boy seeks the old man to learn of the ways of this ancient order, but eventually has to return to his uncle’s farm, which, the boy finds, has been destroyed by fire, and his uncle killed. The boy then sets off with the old hermit, who also gives him a sword which belonged to his father. As they travel, they train. The boy meets up with a rogue who is full of surprises, but turns out to be fiercely loyal, for all his proclaimed selfishness. The boy also begins "seeing" a beautiful woman imprisoned and in need of help.

The boy decides that he needs to rescue her, even though he doesn't know her; further, he thinks of her only as beautiful (Luke's first words are, "Who is she? She's beautiful?" Eragon can't stop thinking about her beauty). Long story short, the old hermit dies to protect the boy, the boy and the rogue help the beautiful damsel escape.

They then set off to the rebellion to give important information and return the object which the princess had sent the boy. They were followed by the Empire, and prepare for a giant battle that will either save the rebellion or annihilate them.

The boy proves his worth with heroics during the battle, but his crowning achievement is his destruction of a noun of much power that has the ability to destroy lots of things. The boy is aided in this by one of his friends, who arrives at precisely the right moment.
The boy is lauded a hero.

The boy has a hallucination of a powerful master who can teach him more of the ancient order. The boy travels to the powerful master to learn the ways of the ancient order's mystical power. While there, he grows very powerful. While he is away, the Rebellion regroups in a new area.

Just when the boy is on a roll with his training, and has grown very powerful, he has a vision of his friends in great danger. He decides he must go to help them. His master warns him not to go. The boy promises that he will return. He leaves.

He finds his friends just in time and is able to distract the enemy so that his friends will remain safe. He finds out that his father was the right-hand man of the Emperor--his father was the one who betrayed the ancient order and helped kill them.

The boy is shocked and ultimately defeated, but not killed. He finds out that someone dear to him has been taken by evil people, and promises to find this person

What looks "good" about it? The adverts have almost no substance.

Golly, really? That's not like the first thing I ever heard about the book!

There's such a thing as polish, and people called editors, you know.

You make it sound as though Lucas himself had an original thought in that entire first trilogy.

Last year I bought my daughter (12 at the time) the second book. She didn't really like it. She told me just a couple weeks ago that I had gotten her the second book first, not the first book. So I think I'll buy her the First book so she can give it another chance.

Senile bat.

How the hell would I have known there was more than one book?

Doesn't Eldest list itself as the sequel to another book?

Anyway, Eragon picked up after that whole forty pages. It reads easier, and it's sure more interesting. I almost tripled my reading in a day. The movie may still blow, though.

DONT DO THIS TO ME!

RESEARCH

Yes I should research every Xmas present before buying it. You got me. I'm a terrible father, no way this problem could ever be resolved. I stand humbly in your presence, awaiting judgment.

Nah. Just research the presents with prequels. ;)

Thats what I do.

...I have no life. :(

I think we should kick him in the balls for the transgression against man and nature.

But not God. Because God don't believe in no satanic DVDs...

It's a halfway decent movie. Not terrible as I previously stated it would be.

Although it does feel like the author opened up a medical dictionary and started naming towns and words after venereal diseases.

Might check this out today. I love medieval shits.

Not bad. :y:

I went and saw this, only because I'm a Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich fan. I was miserable throughout most of it cause of all the kids going crazy all around me. I'd probably enjoy it even more when it hits DVD. However, I'm hearing mixed reviews from viewers and top critics saying that the movie is nothing like the book. Can someone who read and went and saw this confirm?

NOTE: If you should go see this movie, see it late, or during a weekday when everybody is at school.

The movie is almost nothing like the book. I will confirm that. Much of the story is pared out, and they added in points for the Hell of it. The entire final fight has sweet fuck all to do with the book, aisde from the fact that Eragon's involved, and they spent 10 minutes of time building up the King, who was never really there in the book in this one...Pointless excess, when more time could be spent developing the Varden, or Eragon's travels, etc.

Eh, it was alright. Couldn't the stand the kid playing Eragon tho.

il will third that it was the kid was very average.

It did play out like a star wars with dragons though

The next one should be better. It should have more of John Malkovich I hope.

I don't think Malkovich can save the series. It's going to be like Fishburne in the Matrix.

Just finished watching it - glad I didn't pay for it, although I want my bandwidth back.

UPDATE

I bought my daughter the first book (Eragon) so kiss my ass.

Yeah, being an aussie, your download speed is probably measured in KB/day. ;)

Did you read the book?

Did she/ýou see the movie first?

Were you surprised when Eragon blew up the death star with help from his friend Brom Solo, who killed Harry Potter's Parents?

Nah, she wants to read the book first. I'm eager to see if she sees the parallels of other storylines within this book. I'll say nothing to influence her p.o.v.

*Obi Brom Kenobi.

This movie pretty much tanked. I don't see them making any more out of the series unless they're direct-to-DVD.

LOL, they'll make Oooooodles of money. I feel the same way about Harry Potter, but they carry on carrying on.

Yeah but the Harry Potter movies make money, and lots of it.

I was trying to go for things that weren't particularly instep.

Anyway, is themovie doing that horrible?

They also aren't critically panned.

The Potter movies are not given the highest of reviews, but are offered up fair reviews. The Eragon movie, by th esame people has been torn down, and pretty rightfully so.

Potter, while not faithful to the original books, is still imaginative fantasy.

Eragon reminds me of one of those Sci Fi original movies that star former Star Trek actors who can't get other work.

My daughter breezed through the book in like 3 days, regardless of whether or not it was a cheap plot derived from other works, she enjoyed it. That's what it's all about, well worth the $13 I paid for it.

She wants me to take her to the movie now. Which I will.

That's the thing. I thought it was enjoyable myself.

The movie is nothing like the book though, and I enjoyed it a lot less.

Never read the book or anything, but this movie was bad. Hard to sit through. Nothing in it worked, I see why it's been criticized so much.

I'm taking her to the show tonight, I hope she isn't disappointed in it. I'll be sure to ask her after the show if it followed the book.

It does, but it's more a "Star Wars follows Hidden Fortress" way.

So we walk out of the theater and my daughter says "Wow, that killed the book" She went on to tell how much stuff they either left out or told wrong. I said to her that I found the movie very rushed and that it didn't have any flow. She says to me "The guy that wrote the script never read the book, a friend must of told him vaguely what it was about"

She got home and pulled out the book to show me all the missing chapters. :lol:

She wants to write a letter to the author complaining. :rofl:

Ahaha, she went ahead and wrote them a letter.

That's it.



My daughter's a king. :heart:

Have her make a copy and send it to the author. I don't care if he's 16 years old or whatever, you should have some say in the movie based on your book. The kid should take a few pointers from J.K. Rowling.

Buy anyway, good for your girl. :y:

Most of these are rather minor points.

The Urgals not having horns, for example.

The Twins? Well, interestingly enough, the final fight included two identical-looking people flaking (I think) the Shade. I'm missing my copy of Eldest, so I don't know what happens next, but I think they cut out the middleman.

The bit about Horst? No big. They wrote out much of the life before he becomes a Rider, anyway.

The lack of the Werecat sucks, though he was not crucial to the plot. See Also, Bombadil, Tom.

I can explain the desert and lack of lifting water: It would slow the movie down.

A lot of this stuff is really minor. Though rewriting the whole ending (They got the invasion wrong) is a big one on my list of no-nos. They executed this movie, and I mean they raped it, drew, quartered, raped the quarters, took them out back, shot them, and fucked the holes.

Most of what she was complaining about? That's like Trekkies complaining about the PRime Directive being broken, or the continuity of Kirk's wig.

J.K. Rowling? Those movies are pretty butchered themselves.

He's 23 now. or so. Makes me feel like a slacker. I'm still rewriting the novel I started at 14.

Keep up the good work. :y:

But really, it's probably written somewhere that you should sit in on the movie based on your book. The last thing you need is for someone to buy the rights from you and make a movie that will be complete and utter garbage.

Well, I don't think these are coming out without the approval of the authors. Especially the Potter books. She's had nothing but praise for the movies, far as I've seen. I couldn't imagine blind creative control to someone else, but honestly, in most cases, I think people expect too much.

Eragon's not one of those cases. The movie should have had 30 minutes more content at least, and about half the movie should have been different. Regardless of the whole "it's not like the book" thing, which is okay, the big problem is that the story they told was not only different, but poorly constructed.

Those were her thoughts. I'm pretty proud that she recognized so many flaws, it tells me she comprehended and retained what she read. Of course it's geeky of her, but daddy don't care :love:

She got a few wrong, as well. :p

I dunno. Perhaps I'm just jaded by the number of kids who dissected the Harry Potter books.

She seemed to like both the books and the movies for Harry Potter, same as Lord of the Rings. This is the first time she's ever made a complaint about things of this nature.

I was talking more in scope than specifics.

And when I look at a letter like that, I look at it from a critical point of view. Not to tear down, but to point out what's wrong so that one can improve upon it. In this case, my attention was drawn to the concept of being taken seriously by the person who reads it.

Scarily, yes, I did think about professionalism when I was 7-8.

KK, stfu. She's a kid. Get a fucking life or find something better to analyze than a child's letter.

This makes you officially the biggest looser I have ever seen.

Wow. Somehow, Hero managed to take my comments in stride, but you have to spazz out? :lol:

Flipping out over constructive criticism. Oh yeah. You're in a good boat to call someone a loser.

Nah Kane's not being overly critical. In fact I brought to my daughter's attention some of the things Kane said, to see what her reaction to it was. She's 13 but level headed and says she's going to re-read certain things to see who is right.
Now most kids would flip out and go on about how right they are and not even consider being wrong.

Like I said, my daughter is a king.

Your daughter's 13? Shit. I'd better back off. I thought I was picking on an 8 year old. :shifty:

But yeah, if she's re-reading the book to compare points of view, that's pretty groovy.

BTW, the one thing that stuck out to me in her commentary was that Murtagh shows up too early. I thought he was the werecat at first, because he shows up when Angela reads his fortune.

In either case, whether you go by the city or by the event, Murtagh shows up before he would in the book if I'm remembering right.

All these names and places mean nothing to me, I saw the movie but I can't recall the names of anyone. I told her I'd read the book (at some point) but until then all that she had typed is gibberish to me.

Never read the books - never heard of them until this movie came out. I'm not into fantasy, although I enjoyed the Harry Potter books and movies. If I need a dragons and magic fix I'll listen to Dio.

Might still be giberish to you. :D

Ahhh, Dio. The D&D fan favorite. :p

Eragon isn't very magical: The series is very low-magic, though the main character can cast it. Even then, in limited doses. Thankfully. He may grow; I can't find my copy of Eldest, so I can't tell you how much he grows, though I do know he's up for some Jedi training.

If you like Harry Potter, you might enjoy these, as they're comewhat comparable. still, compared to the source material (Susan Cooper, the Worst Witch, etc. For Harry Potter), they look horribly derivative. I don't care if they're not original, but it's amazing the number of people who say that these are renamrkable and imaginative just because they've never picked a book up before.

Speaking of illiterate people, anyone else amused that Destor and PC took my comments worse than a 13 year old? Come on, that's some funny shit.

Actually, if you like Harry Potter, you should probably just check out the Dark is Rising series, period. IT's almost 40 years old now, but it's a well-written series.

In fact, Nunder and Hero, since you both have kids of the right age, you should probably check them out anyway. The Dark Is Rising (The second book in the series) is being released as a movie sometime next year. Hopefully they've put time and money into it.

Thanks KK I'll check out those books - actually a mate of mine has the Eragon series, so when he gets back from climbing mountains in Boreno I'll grab them off him.

BTW my oldest daughter is only 4 1/2, and although she can read and write I think Eragon is a little out of her depth. :D

IS there more books after Eldest?

He said looser, which must mean something entirely different. :shifty:

Must be some sort of sex thing.

Crikey, mate, I keep thinking she's older.

-EDIT-

By the way, the first DiR book is aimed for far younger kids than the last four. Over Sea, Under Stone was written like 20 years earlier than the other books, and there was originally no plan for a series. Which explains why only one character (To my recollection) is involved in the second book that was in the first. The first one contains the best chase scene I've ever seen written.

Yes, but the third's not released yet. It's a trilogy, and my ex's copy of the book features a sneak peak at Chapter 3 of the third book.

OR maybe he's got half the schooling Hero's daughter does. :shifty:

Discussion: Did the people who wrote the screenplay for Eragon read Eldest, or consult with the author or anything?

Thoughts? Opinions? My guess? No.

It was a bad movie, plain and simple. Even though I myself never read the books, I didn't like the pace or flow of this thing.

The movie was what it was.

I agree that, apart from any comparison to the books, the movie was pretty weak. It wasn't awful, but it's one of those movies I regretted paying money for.

However, having just finished the second book, a lot of things that will happen in Eldest are kind of.,..Well, mutually exlcusive with the way things develop in the second book. I don't expect movies to translate verbatim, but I was a bit surprised that they would change the story so much as to go in a different direction from where the series is clearly going.

I also won't pretend the book is exactly perfect: Paolini resorts to a few things which I think are, frankly, bad storytelling. also, like the Lord of the Rings movies, he writes the details of such minutia that he often detracts from everything else (You know, like how they devoted half of each LoTR flick to telling us ow pretty New Zealand was). The books kind of did it, but I used the films because it underscores it in my opinion.

As such, I expect it to translate poorly. Or, if not poorly, roughly. However, it's not hard to pay enough attention to the books to get an idea as to whether things are going.

Still havent' got round to getting the Eragon books off my mate - I might have a look for an audio book. I spend more time travelling than sitting at home reading.

Audio books? Just read in the car. Statistically,. it's no worse than driving drunk...

My brother does the whole audio book thing all the time. Told me he was tired of listening to shit music stations and needed something to fill the time (he travels a lot) so he gave audio books a try, he's hooked.

My mother lost both cheap copies of the Harry Potter book (The first one). So I bought her the books on CD, and she keeps re-listening to it.

I like to keep my books books and my aduio music.

Although, listening to the first disc of the Da Vinci Code saved me the labor of actually reading it. And I didn't pay anything for the trouble...

I don't think reading the books has anything to do with whether you liked the movie. It's more about whether or not you like movies that are remotely good, or settle for this.

I havnt read the books yet but I really enjoyed the movie...

except for the ending...I get that it might end like that in the book but honestly I really hate the whole Pirates 2/Lord of the Rings like endings in movies know where basically this movies sets up the next movie

Be fair. Eragon was a complete story in and of itself, unlike Pirates 2 and Lord of the Landscapes. While it sets up the next movie, it doesn't do so in a way that detracts from the whole "Final fight with the evil enemy armies."

And it's not that I liked the movie. It's just that you're comparing a complete movie to a two parter (Pirates) and a series of movies based on a series of books originally intended to be one book (Lord of the Yawn).