I am the Doctor wrote:Having now both read Eragon and seen the movie version, I can say that the movie is an improvement over the book.
I found the Eragon book not really a ripoff of Lord of the Rings, but more like a fantasy version of Star Wars-A New Hope. Most of the elements from New Hope are there: the farm boy with a destiny, a kidnapped princess, the Obi-Wan like mentor, etc. Of course, Christopher Paolini wasn't the first to rip-off the basic plot of New Hope: George Lucas did it first with his fantasy movie Willow. The trouble is less that Paolini did rip-off A New Hope but that the book is overlong, with far too much filler. In his quest, Eragon crosses Alagaesia three different times and there are four chapters devoted to searching for a shipping manifest.
I think the problem here is that the first editor of Paolini's book was his father (Paolini was only 15 when he started writing Eragon) and I can't imagine a father being really tough enough on his son to tell him that certain parts of his book are not really necessary.
As for the movie version, the screenwriter stripped the story down to the essentials. The improves the story, though one can still see the Star Wars parallels. While the movie is definitely not in the same league as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter movies or Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it is an entertaining diversion. Rachel Weisz does a decent job as the voice of the dragon, Saphira and Jeremy Irons is pretty darn good as Brom, the Obi-Wan like mentor of Eragon.
My ratings for Eragon: Two and a half stars (out of four) for the book version, three stars for the movie.
Couldn’t agree more with you
even after all this time I still love this movie. I actually think it’s better than the MiddleEarth movies, Which I find Are way too dark, Draggy and repetitive, even if they do have excellent production value which is even better than this movie here. In all honesty, I really don’t understand How anyone can like the book better for A lot of the reasons you’ve said. The only thing from the book that I truly miss from it is Solumbaum The werecat, Who Even with that I can definitely see why they thought that he and literally everything else that they Cut was overall Unnecessary. It is truly a blessing to have everything else From the book cut and or changed as like you said it truly helps The movie focus and emphasize what truly matters To it, including truly helping it become it’s own thing, despite the remaining similarities.
I also have to disagree with the other comment above about the dialogue being sloppy and even laughable. Even the fact that there was an audience laughing at it only proves that it’s them that truly has the problem, and along with a lot of the other people who dislike this movie Also proves That they are too Spoiled and influenced from having watched too many other movies, Let alone focussing too much on what is perceived as what is a “good“ movie, and therefore the “right“ way to make a movie. In other words/to use an Example, people see movies like the MiddleEarth movies, and therefore always expect and demand that every single movie Has to be As good as or better than Them [also regardless of the fact that those Particular movies are what Got a lot of people into the Eragon/Inheritance series].
They Fail to look at the movie As its own thing, and with that overlooking what It truly overall is In and Of itself, Which again like you said In streamlining it and therefore focussing More On its core essence, it actually, if this makes any sense at all, Has the movie Be more loyal to the book than Even the book itself even was, Again largely because of streamlining and getting To the core essence of what the story And the world truly are, while Likewise making it its own thing without dragging on and trying too hard to be Like middle earth and Star Wars, so much so that It copied and pasted way too much from them.
It also brings up the point as we have demonstrated here that film truly is subjective; not only with this movie, but in recent years, it more than seems that people are far too fixated on what is truly The “right” way to View a movie/the “ right“ way to make it, let alone adapt it if it is from a book etc. for whatever reason people feel like they are wrong or even stupid if they don’t Think about a movie the same way that the overall majority Views it, yet in reality, they are actually More wrong and or stupid For just going with what the majority Thinks Instead of thinking critically about it and applying what They truly think about, Truly believe in and truly feel, for again FILM IS SUBJECTIVE! Subjective means that there is not necessarily a right or wrong way of thinking feeling or doing something. Again, because it is subjective, You are able to notice things that even the majority could not, Which very well could change the overall outlook towards something, including true revelation of what it truly is; let alone the fact that many other movies such as blade runner, Which was an initial failure when it first came out, only to be viewed [in its initial on altered theatrical cut] as an overlooked classic.
In conclusion, even Though it has been about a decade and a half, And even with the reports above about a reboot movement, this Eragon movie will always be truly near and dear to me, for if nothing else fixing and truly portraying a book for what it truly is, and if nothing else, even with all that may be against it, truly setting an example, Let alone seemingly starting the trend the Trend that caused it For what is Truly Wrong with our society In regards to subjective experiences and reactions.
