Eragon: An Epic Flop?

There's been a lot of hype surrounding this movie in these parts. For one thing, you can't go ANYWHERE without seeing a movie poster. They're on the back of buses, in bus stops, in the malls, in kfc...the list goes on.

The book is fantastic. Almost brilliant when you consider that Christopher Paolini wrote it when he was only 15.

The movie was a classic example of one of those big budget films where they spent more money on advertising than on making the movie any good. If I was Paolini - and I don't claim to have the ability to write a novel at age 15 - I would have never allowed such a vigourous bastardisation of my work.

The movie followed none of the original plot, it removed everything that was interesting about the minor characters and excluded a large number of major characters and characters that would play a major role in any future movies they might want to make. (Although, judging from the response from most people they may not make any future movies anyway...)

How can you do that? How can you completely twist the plot of the book so that it is virtually unrecognisable?? It almost makes me feel ashamed of my little duelling Eragon from KFC that sits on my desk. The book had plenty of scope for a fantasy epic - possibly not up to the standards of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or even Narnia. But it had potential.

Unfortunately, really bad casting, the lack of a good script - not to mention the lack of a plot of any kind - and poor character development, completely destroyed this film before it even had the chance. Perhaps if they'd spent a little less on special effects and more on casting? The characters were virtually unrecognisable and the film conveyed a feeling of moving along as quickly as possible so that we could get to the major fight scene at the end. (Which, btw - did not go at all as described in the book...) Basically, the film moved so fast that there was no chance for the characters to develop.

We mainly found the film funny even though it wasn't meant to be.

It's really unfortunate because I was really looking forward to it!

In other news: Read Eldest. It's SO much better :)