Wow, I must really not have much happening in my life if I keep writing reviews for stuff. Anyway, last night I went to see Eragon with Shazzi, that movie that was based on a book written by some apparent child prodigy at the age of fifteen named Chris Paolini or something. I have not read the books, nor have I seen how he may have masterfully crafted the stories together. Instead, I saw the movie.
Well, it was entertaining. And definitely worth free.
The CG was pretty, though a little unnatural at points (despite it being a fantasy movie, I know, but it just didn’t look right dammit!) and the baby dragon part was completely adorable. I wanted one. The action sequences were nicely executed for the most part and, well, it was pretty well done as a movie.
The bad part was in the story and MY GOD the dialogue. Cheesy lines galore! And the story? A mix of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Dragon Riders of Pern. And all of it with a *twitch*Gary Stu*twitchtwitch* as the main character. Let’s start with that one.
This kid goes what seems like instantly from being a farm boy, to a hero after his uncle gets killed. Star Wars. Anyway. Unusually strong bond with his dragon, constantly being whiny about the whole “Why me? I never asked for this,” cliche, oh and lets not forget how he’s apparently unnaturally gifted with magic too. Of course, magic has a price, but only when dramatically appropriate. All of the girls he seems to instantly get along with, care for and BOOM! They seem to like him back. It’s not a key plot point, but it annoyed me. He picks up sword fighting and becomes an awesome shot with a bow out of what seems like nowhere too. He also managed to yell at his dragon and the dragon just completely forgives him. Oh, and it learns to breathe fire at just the right time. All his flaws seem to be quickly glossed over and he ends up taking out Grima or whatever the story called him after what seems like a couple days of having his ass handed to him by the guy. My god. GARY STU ALERT!
Shaz and I spent the movie pointing out things we recognized as references to just about everything we noticed. Orcs and Urgals or however you spell them. Their dark sorcerer and Grima Wormtongue. And he screamed of Grima Wormtongue too. There was one guy who reminded her, then me, of Gimli. DAMN YOU SHAZZI! Oh, and the Varden? The race of the Varden looked suspiciously like they were just black people. Obiwan died again, under the guise of Brom (fantasy name number 62 for those of you wondering) after he passes on his sword.
There’s plot similarities too, but I found something that can do a better job than I can. See, after the movie I had this horrible suspicion that there was going to be more Star Wars in the “SEQUEL!” as Shazzi so eloquently yelled at the end of the movie. I was worried this chick (Who did the whole “Help me, you’re my only hope” thing in Eragon’s dreams) might end up being his sister separated at birth. Cue Wikipedia. Apparently he is separated at birth from someone else, but that the chick is actually supposed to be a hot, leather-clad elf chick. Excuse me? ELF? It doesn’t show.
I found a link to a lovely site that does the comparison between storylines than I can. I’ll let them do the job for me.
And yes, he was fifteen when he wrote it and all I’m really criticizing here is the story written and behind the movie. So I’m criticizing the story. And what could I have written at fifteen? Let’s see, fifteen would put me at grade 9-10. Darkling was a bud, Kiomati had come out, I believe I may have still been working on Enchantress, I was working on my own Mary Sue fanfic and, you know, of course there was RPing. I wasn’t much better with my stories yet. But the key here is that I DIDN’T GET PUBLISHED. There’s a REASON for that. At the very least, the non-fanfic stuff wasn’t based on anything I read. Loss, sure it sounded a lot like something in existence, but I’d never even heard of Chrysalids. He cites some of these things as influences.
But really, it’s an entertaining movie. It’s just the writer in me getting annoyed that someone who copied a bunch of stuff and mixed them together gets published. Also gives me hope for my own stuff, really, since I have original fic. Go see it after you forget Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and any Dragon Riders of Pern books you’ve ever read and it’s fine. Otherwise, I hope you aren’t bothered by similarities.
