*nods* I get it.

please call me Hawt or Chocolatey, or some other nickname that hasn't been invented yet. Hawt Chocolate is such a mouthful...

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<center>“Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.”
at one point, I was alejandrah.

I was actually liking it until they decided to rescue Arya and completely lost the original plot. From there on I laughed my way through.

The good:
-Saphira was PERFECT. Rachel Weisz did a wonderful job as her voice, and the animation was almost flawless.
-Brom was great as well
-The acting wasn't all that bad...
-The (Natural) locations were great


The bad that bugged me most... in no way all of the problems:
-The lack of character development for anyone not named Eragon, Brom or Saphira
-The horrible script
-The transitions from scene to scene were horrible
-Brom's death... I was laughing all the way through it.
-ANGELA! The worst scene and character in the entire movie. It would have been better to cut it out and give us more Murtagh (He had three, maybe four lines?)
-No werecat
-Saphira's magical super fast aging...
-The Varden. It was like "Hi there... Battle time!" Completely dumb
-Durza was just wierd...
-Eragon's scar??
-The fact that the plot was so screwed up.


I agree, especially since they cut out the big city where Eragon is SUPPOSED to meet Angela and they completely changed the Varden place. It seemed as though all of the normal people (In Carvahall and the other town) lived in piles of sticks (In the book Carvahall was described as more of a medieval town then a place in Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and dug up dirt for a living.

It just didn't capture the magic of the book... in my opinion it would have been better to release it as a straight-to-TV movie, because then no one would have expected anything from it.

If I hadn't read the books: 7/10
Since I have read them: 2/10

As I said, Durza = Wormtongue on crack.

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<center>“Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.”
at one point, I was alejandrah.

^Agreed. Wormtongue on crack it is.

You guys were that disappointed??

I admit, it made me very angry that they cut so much out. especially my fave charrie murtagh...and the crystal star whatever thingy...that wudda been amazing. But i didn't think it was THAT bad. i thought what they did have was spectacular personally. the actors were wonderful, saphira was great, I thought the locations were perfect (cept for Farthen Dur, but that;s cuz i picutred it a bit differently. i thought what they did there was okay tho. it looked really cool), the plot flowed okay, even though it was wrong. And even though Brom's was completely wrong, I thought that the whole dying while riding was a nice touch.

i think that while it lacked a lot, the little touches made up for it. Such as:

Brom's
The relationship u can easily see between Eragon and Roran
The relationship (thought undeveloped) between Eragon and Murtagh that was SORT OF there
The whole first scene with saphira...that was cute


I am a weird one, but I thought it was a well done movie, even if it was different from the book.

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Heehee, sorry, that just made me laugh

I'm still kind of excited about seeing the movie...I haven't read the book for a while, and while I enjoyed it, it doesn't hold a really special place in my heart, so I think I might like the movie just as a standalone type-thing. I don't know when I'll see it though...I doubt I'll see it tomorrow...ah well...I'm not crushed

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I didn't feel the relationship between Eragon and Murtagh though Sam the Brave. And as a non-book reader, it was important that I did, but I didn't. I went on what I heard around about their relationship in the book but I saw none of it onscreen.

The #1 downfall of the movie was the lack of character development as I've mentioned and what Ms.Gamgee agreed upon. A movie has to connect with the audience and the most common way to do that is to develop the characters, ones that you can sympathize with, ones that we see ourselves in them but we didn't have time to really <i>get to know</i> the characters before they rushed the plot.

Eragon's character was only slightly developed, but I didn't feel for him at the end when he was trying to heal Saphira.

Brom's character was there, but not developed really either; he was just there, like a book telling of stories but had no real history. I pitied him at his death, and moved on. It was definitely not Jeremy Irons fault because he's such an A-List actor, and he's just amazing.

Arya's character bothered me so much because I knew NOTHING of her. There was NOTHING. She didn't seem to have a personality, she was like a robot with a pretty face. I know nothing of what race she is, what her purpose of her involvement in the return of the Dragon Riders would be.

Roran, for what little part he had, also was just.... "What?" He comes and then he leaves. I'm just gaping and scratching my head.

Murtagh was severely chopped and cheated. I felt sorry for him, but not because he's labeled a traitor when he wasn't, but because they gave him so little character development. And I certainly know that it's not the actor's fault because I loved him as Patroclus in TROY.

Durza also had a sense of no character development, but I don't know if he's like that in the book; he was pretty darn evil though, I totally liked him.

Galbatorix was always talked about but we never really saw him do anything, I really hope he is a lot more powerful than Durza if he were the King. Throughout the movie he really just sat in his chamber and stared eerily at the map debating whether or not to release his own Dragon. Even though he is the villain, and the omniniscient King, I want to see the character and personality that lead him to his eventual reign. All Kings had a way of getting themselves there, I want to see how he did it.
With spunk.

Varden; they didn't have personalities. They were just suspicious and shadey (of the regular kind).

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^I agree with you, Kit. The movie didn't develop the characters at all... Especially Arya and Mutagh. I have a feeling that they assumed that everyone has already read the book, so they felt they didn't need to 'waste time' building *Gasp* realistic characters.

Sam: I would have walked out if Saphira hadn't been right. So yes, I did hate it that much.


Huh? they barely said three words to each other!

*Is still crying over Solembum*

okay, my feeling was this. The characters WERE poorly developed. I realize how I phrased that was kind of weird. I was WAY mad that they cut everything out about Murtagh. But, the whole way they talked to each other, however small the parts were, that was how I imagined them being. You know that kind of back and forth friend thing and the whole 'okay, i guess we're even' line. my dad hadn't read the book either, but he said that even those few lines helped him see where it was going with the relationship.


And yes, the loss of solembum was stupid.


And Kit, there were supposed to be more scenes with Roran...I found pics of him with his fiance...but I think they cut them out for some reason i can't fathom. i meant only the scene where he was wreslting with Eragon. They portrayed a relationship that I had trouble understanding in the book, so i really liked that part.

The biggest problem was the time cuts. Brom develops over the looooooooooong four day journey. They cut that down a LOT, so how were they going to fit him in? As for Murtagh, you also get his development during his time spent with Eragon on the way to their destination. Arya develops in the city and as well as through the scrying...which was completely butchered in this.


As Arwen said, i am looking at this as a stand-aside. I think if you've read the books, and are willing to look at it as a different story (which it technically was) then this movie is good. My dad, a non-reader, also really enjoyed it, even though it was short and underdeveloped. I think it also really depends on how serious u are about it. I mean, if you are the kind of person who will not go see the HP movies becuz they cut out Peeves....then u will this movie.

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That's also my problem. =/ I didn't enjoy it as well as I should've even as a non-reader, I know bits and pieces from the book from hearing others but I don't know everything of the book and the movie still was a disappointment because they glorified it in the trailers, and then there was no backing to that trailer. I wanted more personality, more character backgrounds, more SOMETHING that connected me with the characters. I know I keep repeating myself but argh. >.<

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I went to see it the day it came out, and here's my assessment of it.

The graphics, camera pans, special effects, and general mood of the movie was excellent. It had that epic feel to it, and the locations they chose were simply breathtaking.

I feel that what they lacked most distinctly was the length of the movie. They tried to cram... what? 500 pages into an hour and a half long movie? I agree with what you've mentioned about character developement. The length of the movie simply didn't allow it. A few points I'd like to mention.

1. First and foremost, disappointed over Eragon's relationship with Murtagh. I felt nothing for Murtagh when he uncovered his secret about being Morzan's son. And in the movie, it seemed that he and Eragon had just met - so why should he care?

2. Eragon's transition from clumsy farmboy to legendary warrior. Come on, one minute he was being completely owned by Brom, and the next he's suddenly a sword virtuoso? They should have thrown in a few scenes where Brom and Eragon are sparring to show how he learns magic and how he improves as the journy progresses.

3. The narrowness of the world itself. In the books, Alagaesia is a world complete in itself, so detailed and complex that it's almost tangible. None of this shows in the movie. We see an isolated village, a few pretty mountains, and another pretty city. This is tied in with having no interesting side characters - ordinary civilians that make up the villages/cities and help/obstruct them on the way (the poorly defined Angela doesn't count). There's no culture, no history, no landmarks or interesting scenes to really make Alagaesia stand out as anything other than a randomly conceived fantasy world.

4. The action. During the entire movie, I felt like everything was just too easy. Durza throws a few shiny knives, Eragon shoots an arrow. Durza dissipates. Eragon=hero. At the gates of the Varden. You see the Urgals start pouring down the slopes, but nothing comes out of it. Little struggle, little desperation. Armed warriors from the Varden magically appear and save the day. And the battle at the very end... Nice special effects, but again it could have been longer. This is the epic battle that defines the climax of the entire movie. And it's over before you even begin holding your breath.

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I agree with you.

Okay, funniest thing: He looks in the mirror and says 'I barely recognze myself' yet all that's different is that he's wearing armor. lol. i actually started ing up. I think they should'v gone more into his transformation as u said. In the book, he has become more muscular and rugged over the time, but the movie just isn't long enough to show that change.

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I totally agree with you, Sammy! I think that the Roran and Eragon connection was totally there!!! I loved that. And Saphira as a baby dragon was perfect...

But not of Murtagh!!! And I just didn't like how they left so much out! Oh well...that's why they made books!

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

Wow, we're getting really different ideas here! Luckily I agree with several people... I agree with Sam, but with Tur too, and I agree with everybody's complaints about it, but like it anyway.

Basically I went into it refusing to be that disappointed. I'm not normally optimistic, but I tried to be, and it worked. I'm still determined to think it was an OK movie, despite the many flaws. It had Narnia totally beat!

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