Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Eragon (2006)

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-14-2006, 09:35 AM:

My teenage cousin has been waiting for this movie to come out for a year and a half. Apparently, he's read the book 17 times. We brought him, his brother, and his sister and their parents out to screen it with us last night, and they all liked it a lot. I imagine they're the coolest kids in school today.

The story has a lot of parallels to Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars, and other fantasy mythologies. But that didn't really take away from the enjoyment of watching it at all. I thought the special effects were pretty good, the score was good, the sound mix was good, the acting was good... Everything seemed to work, and like I said, it was a lot of fun to watch. Very "Lord-Of-The-Rings-ish", but not quite as dark and complicated.

I predict a lot of business on this one.

Posted by Keith Peticolas (Member # 971) on 12-15-2006, 04:41 AM:

Not to pick a fight or nuthin'. But I could not disagree more. Eragon is a stinky pile of poo. What a lousy movie. Bad Acting. Mark Hamil is Brando compared to the sad sack in the lead role. Bad Score. Soap opera music during a battle...WTF? Previewed it in one of my DTS houses. Moved it out of there very quickly. Waste of good sound. Action!? Lots of Michael Bay shakey-cam. The first 5 minutes of any of the LOTR movies put this to shame. Malkovitch? He's in it for maybe 3 minutes. And boy, does he suck something fierce. And I like him. SFX? Lame. Zena and Hercules had better... 10 years ago! I let a couple of floor monkeys, who had been waiting all year to watch it, sit in on the preview. They were practically in tears over how much of a turd fest we had just seen. Fans of the book will hate this movie soooo much. It will open big and die fast.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-15-2006, 09:43 AM:

As of this Friday morning (opening day), Eragon rated a pretty rotten 11% score at Rotten Tomatoes with 33 of 37 reviewers panning the movie.

I'm guessing those two sequels won't be made. But then again I could be wrong about that. After all, Hollywood has been making quite a few sequels of mediocre to bad movies for the last decade. Maybe the thinking is if they pick up the same turd and keep throwing it at the wall again and again eventually it will stick.
[Razz]

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 12-15-2006, 02:49 PM:

I had no expectations for this, but found it enjoyable. Sure, it's no Lord of the Rings but what ever could be. On its own, it's not that bad of a movie. I was rather disappointed in the sound mix. Not to say it was terrible, but it could have been so much more. It felt very front heavy to me, with no real good use of the surrounds. I did like the running time, although it felt rushed. I think the sequels could be fun, but nothing I'd miss if they didn't get made.

AJG

Posted by Ross Oba (Member # 3433) on 12-15-2006, 11:06 PM:

Add me to the hate list. I never read the book although a bunch of my friends have. It was the dumbest movie I have seen this year, no joke. The only good thing about it was Rachel Weisz as the voice of the dragon. I was disappointed with Jeremy Irons' and John Malkovich's performances.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-20-2006, 12:43 AM:

...a little bit of "Dragonslayer" and "Dragonheart" churned all into one ...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-20-2006, 08:44 PM:

We aren't playing this yet but reports are coming in from teenagers who have seen it. One of my concession people said she "heard it was stupid" which is the death knell for any teen-oriented movie. "It's stupid" is the ultimate putdown of anything, even beating "it sucks."

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-21-2006, 10:10 AM:

Interestingly, I hear that a lot with our staff too, but no one who says that has seen it (not even a few minutes of it), and no one can tell me who said it was stupid. When one guy said that to me, I asked him if he saw it and when he said "no", I took him in to watch a few minutes of it. When we came out, he said, "That looks pretty good actually."

I dunno. [Shrug]

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 12-24-2006, 12:47 PM:

Saw this one last night with my 7 year old son.

Regal Salisbury 16, Salisbury, Maryland.

Verical scratches throughout, especially in reel 3.

I have been waiting for the ultimate dragon movie since I was twelve years old. This wasn't it.The ultimate Dragon movie hasn't been made yet. I also noticed a few spots of bad editing (the scene when the cousin leaves the village).

Pretty forgettable movie.

Posted by Justin Gorka (Member # 3727) on 01-05-2007, 02:41 PM:

Was there anything origianal about this film, apart from the way they spelt dragon?
Did rubbish in our cinema (with 2!!! prints)