Future releases [2]

Oh wow, that's the first time I've heard about the Eragon movie in ages. Did you ever read the books, az? The final one came out a few years ago although by that point I wasn't as into the series and didn't make it through the whole thing.

Eragon the film was hideous.

I keep meaning to read the books Eldo ! .... & then forget But, come the New Year I will buy myself the books.

I read the first... two books?
They were basically mish-mash versions of Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, and Star Wars.

I was at an age where I loved the idea of writing a full-length story and submitting it for publishing consideration, and so I remember being quite crabby about the fact that this kid, who was homeschooled like me, was able to get his own writing published only because his parents were well-off and owned a publishing company.

It did not, of course, occur to me that he actually had written something that was longer than a few pages and so any comparison between the two of us was pointless.  

I kind of liked the books, but was not caught up in the story. It was like the ugly step-cousin to the beautiful LotR, Harry Potter, Redwall series, The Sword in the Stone, various sci-fi collections, and all the other wonderful things I was plowing through at that age.

I tried reading it but I found it a bit sluggish.

I read an advance copy of the first book (well, of the Random House version of the first book ... the 20,000 word-longer version from his parent's company was already out).  I really liked it, especially as I had plenty of my own (also highly derivative) fantasy stories and worlds that I played around with at the time, and for years after.  I read and quite enjoyed Eldest as well.  I thought the movie sucked though and not long after that started to reassess the books as I was a little bit older and more discerning by that point.  Brisingr was a slog to get through, both because of its (lack of) quality and because I had soured on the series, and I didn't even try reading Inheritance until it had already been out for a while because I didn't really care that much anymore.  But I can't deny the impact the series had on me, both as a fantasy fan and more generally, since reading about Paolini's homeschool experience (I too was homeschooled) and early high school graduation helped set me on a path that would determine the next eight or nine years of my education.  Plus, the Dog-Eared forums from the sadly defunct Anti-Shurtugal.com were one of my first experiences with Internet forums, which later became a huge part of my life, though mainly in the Tolkien sphere for a long time.

Looking back, I still remember the original Eragon as a fun adventure read, even though it's highly unoriginal and not all that well written (though it's been a long time since I've read the whole thing).  I think the sequels got worse fast, but my history with the series won't let me write it off completely, though there was a time as a self-conscious teenager when I didn't want to admit any connection to it.

As far as fantasy for young readers go, HP and Redwall (which I'm delighted to see Forest mention) definitely hold up way better.

It was my best friend growing up who would most often introduce me to new books. He showed me Eragon. I clearly remember him dorking it up over how much he enjoyed the bit in the Prologue, or whatever, wherein Paolini wrote about the villain's blade (I paraphrase, poorly): "the blade was strong enough to withstand the shock of combat, but thin enough to slip between an enemy's ribs".

I also borrowed most of the HP books from him, sneaking them home like the most precious treasure in my over-night bag, and then later in my schoolbag from the community college, so my mom wouldn't find them.

{{{for srs this time}}}

That was a really good trailer. Feeling pretty hopeful about the movie now, even though I know that doing so over a trailer will often get you burned.

It was indeed a quality trailer. The syncopation was particularly impressive. I mean, even the opening of the beer/soda fit into the beat of the music.

This sold out the very day they released it! And I've been waiting for these frauds to get more in! I can't wait much longer!

Eldorion wrote:In English:

Still extremely cynical about this to be honest, obviously there's barely any existing source material to base (or judge) things on, but I haven't been able to shake off the feeling this is just a unnecessary cashgrab...weird to think that since Rowling wrote it, it should arguably be considered canonical with the books...

I like the look of that

Just ordered my copy of Space Cop!

Im looking forward to this

this is definitely on my must watch list

I dunno - the title is clearly going for laughs, the trailer seems to be aimed for thrills. I'm worried this is a split personality film that may fail for that reason.

Or more precisely: given the title, I want a comedy, dammit.

I always thought the book was intended to be comedic, but going by the Goodreads reviews it sounds like it actually plays it entirely straight.

Movie looks lolworthy.

The book is entertaining enough, with enough zombie-England worldbuilding to make it feel like the author is doing more than just adding "And Zombies" to the end of the title.

I also liked Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters quite a bit, although Android Karenina was less enjoyable I thought. But then I am unfamiliar with the original, so that might have been it.

Edit:
I just watched the video. Either the people who made the trailer are REALLY trying to drag in mindless-action fans (and GoT fans amirite? haha) or else the film is decidedly less an entertaining take on the novel and decidedly more of a transparently sexy-violent action flick.*

I hope its the former, and the actual film has less of this nonsense in it. If only for the sake of Matt Smith I would still like to see the film.


*What a troublesome connection there is between sex and violence in popular media. Violence is never actually sexy: it's just violent and scary and painful!

I agree. But I guess that's what made Dracula so popular. violence and sex.

There's actually very little violence portrayed outright in the book version of Dracula. The most ghoulish is when he throws a sack clearly containing a baby to his three wives, who descend on it. There's also the storm driven arrival of the ship, but we don't see that first hand. The hints of violence without the actual violence brings the sexuality to the fore.