The book: GREAT. I'm about 3/4 of the way through Eragon and I'm really enjoying it. I should say I'm not actually reading it - Eragon is my running book at the moment. But even in audio form I'm really enjoying this book, and I'll likely buy it sometime this week. Looking forward to Eldest, also - that should come up next, I suppose.
The movie: BLOWS CHUNKS. Even for those who haven't read the book, the movie is a short, rushed, incoherent movie that barely scratches the surface of the book. It's truly unfortunate, because the movie offers some great acting talent. I put the movie's problems squarely on the shoulders of the screenwriter and director. At some point someone should have piped up and asked if the screenwriter was even reading the book - it bears only a small resemblance to the text. Granted, Peter Jackson et al set the bar very high with the Lord of the Rings series, but shouldn't their excellent work serve as an example? The further I get into Eragon the more disappointed I am in the movie - both for its lack of faithfulness to the book and for the way in which the director and screenwriter squandered the wealth of acting talent available to them. Two thumbs WAY down.
NO-o-o-o-o-oo-! I was so hoping that they had done a good job with the movie. Why can't directors ever stay faithful to the original?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteI finally saw the movie this weekend. You're right--totally lousy adaptation. I think that if I hadn't read the book beforehand, it would have been an ok movie, but they really messed up some key things that will be hard to reconcile if they decide to the sequel.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. It's like watching some of the movies based on Stephen King novels. Major plot points get changed, motivations are completely altered and the tone of the book/movie doesn't make sense to anyone who's started with one or the other. The sad thing is that the author was apparently fairly heavily involved in the screenplay - how in the world do you allow a hatchet job like this?
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