Archive for the 'Book/DVD Reviews' Category

Valkyrie move to 2008

Published by Administrator August 14th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Storytelling. 0 Comments

I just finished watching Das Boot - Director’s Cut (for the fifth time). It’s such a great movie and it got me thinking - what’s going on with Valkyrie?

Says Cinematical:

MGM seems to be trying to reverse the effects of the doomsaying that circulated about Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer’s Hitler-assassination-attempt thriller Valkyrie in the spring, culminating in the announcement that the movie was moving from December 2008 to President’s Day 2009. That was received as a surrender, a sure sign that the studio had no confidence in the film and was doing damage control by moving it out of harm’s way. Now, following some successful test screenings, MGM has reversed itself and is moving Valkyrie back into the heart of Oscar season: December 26, 2008.


Frankly, I never expected Valkyrie to get any Oscars, so I’m glad it’s being released this year.

The Spirit trailer

Published by Administrator August 11th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, News bits and Storytelling. 0 Comments

Normally, I’m not a big fan of comic book movies - 300 and Sin City being the two recent examples. You gotta check out the Spirit trailer though, if only to see Scarlett Johansson …

spirit

Review: Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls

Published by Administrator May 24th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, Movie Reviews, News bits and Video Production. 0 Comments

I have just seen it and I must say I’m not impressed. The two previous movies (with Richard Chamberlain as Allan) were not perfect but at least they have stuck to the original books.

If you have any doubt that this is exploitation film, supposed to ride on the back of Indy 4 - just check out the trailer. Even the title letters at the end copy Indiana Jones.

Back to the movie. Shot on location in South Africa with (mostly) local actors, Sean Michael is Allan. The sound mix doesn’t cut it - background noises often obscure speech because they are too loud.

The camera’s panning movement takes forever (the opening sequence and elsewhere). There are multiple repetitive shots, e.g. first guy riding, second guy riding after him, rinse and repeat 5 times.

The villain is ridiculous - and you know he’s the bad guy immediately because he’s showcasing a nasty grin and an ugly set of teeth. We’re 50 minutes into the movie before we see natives - and they remain on screen, singing and dancing, for at least 15.

Finally, at the end, when Allan finally finds the Temple of Skulls - guess what - it’s simply a cave with lighting that’s worse that most of tourist caves I’ve been too. A stalagmite and a skull next to it = Temple of the Skull.

Bad guy is there already - holding the girls as a hostage. Boom boom and the girl is reclaimed but the temple crumbles to pieces. Cue more native songs and dances.

THE END

Uwe Boll goes Postal

Published by Administrator April 23rd, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, News bits and Storytelling. 1 Comment

Apparently, the much anticipated (not!) premiere of Postal, has made Uwe even more beligerent. An unfavorable review by Wired had him sent this email to the reviewer Chris Kohler (read the whole drama here)

chris
your review shows me only that you dont understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her …because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it.
people like you are the reason that independent movies have no chance anymore.
uwe boll
PS: POSTAL is R RATED . The MPAA understood the satire — you not — you dumb fuck

In a totally unrelated story, Uwe Boll has gone to Blizzard with an offer to purchase the movie rights for a World of Warcraft movie (source: WoW Insider).

Uwe himself quoted Blizzard’s response: “We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…. especially not to you.”

I wonder if Uwe had the brains to ask for the Diablo movie rights? Blizzard have just announced Diablo 3 (btw, you can download Diablo 2 cd keys), so maybe that’s why they don’t Uwe to spoil it for them.

Conan The Barbarian great scene

Published by Administrator March 6th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Storytelling. 1 Comment

I was browsing Google Video and I came across my favorite scene from Conan.

The music from Basil Poledouris is simply amazing. Barely a word is spoken… what an amazing soundtrack!

Review: Mongol

Published by Administrator February 25th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Digital Technology, Film School, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 0 Comments

MongolI saw Mongol almost a week ago. I wasn’t even aware it was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Foreign Film). It didn’t win but I’m hardly surprised.

The movie aspires to portray Ghengis Khan’s early life. I understand there will be 2 more movies to follow. It does a decent job of portraying the 12th century nomads of Mongolia. It was shot on location in Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia (a Chinese province).

I guess this first part was intended to show why Temudgin (played as adult by Tadanobu Asano) became who he became. It focuses on several important episodes - his choice of bride, the poisoning of his father, the relationship with his half-brother, and the numerous captures and escapes.

The photography and the art direction are excellent - they really contribute to an epic but authentic feel. The characters do not disappoint either.

My only problem is that the movie seems incomplete - maybe because it’s intended as a part of a trilogy. We don’t get to see Ghengis Khan and his Golden Horde until the very end, the last battle scene.

Review: Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Published by Administrator February 6th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Movie Reviews. 1 Comment

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn TwilightI was a big Dungeon & Dragons fan. I’m not anymore not because I grew up (which I did) but because it seems that every book, movie, etc. based on D&D is excruciatingly bad. So bad in fact, I’m not sure I’ll be watching another D&D movie any time soon.

I have read the Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight book back in my college days. It wasn’t Tolkien, but it worked. Since I was playing D&D at the time, it was interesting for me to see what an “ideal” D&D party would look like. I even liked the tale about how the mage got his power but that crippled his body (constitution, baby!).

In short, it was a fun book. Not so with this movie though. The adventure is more or less the same. There a couple of points which bothered me so much, I couldn’t focus on the story.

Let’s start with the production values (source):

Produced by Toonz Animation India, South Asia’s largest and self-proclaimed “most admired” animation studio, Dragons of Autumn Twilight is an absolute mess. This mix of traditional 2D animation for principal characters and backgrounds does not mesh at all with the 3D animation used to create the various Dragons, Draconians, and other evil creatures.

Wow. This probably explains why the movie looks like a mess. I have seen WoW machinima’s that are ten times better than this movie.

The next point is the script. Although the lines are read by the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Rosenbaum, and Lucy Lawless, they’ve lost a lot in translation from the book source. Furthermore, the writer has galloped though the book’s 400 pages. Scenes and characters are missing. By the end of it all, I didn’t care about any of the nine characters.

It’s a shame that the D&D universe gets another slap in the face by Hollywood. The Dungeon and Dragons movie had the excuse of a poor budget (or something to this effect). When you’re doing animation, however, it costs the same to draw a bad cave and to draw a good cave! Anyway, if you’re a D&D zealot, you could rent it but you’d better off reading the book again.

Review: Youth without youth

Published by Administrator November 5th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, Movie Reviews, News bits and Storytelling. 4 Comments

Youth without youthI saw this movie last night, so I’m still pondering most of the unanswered questions.

Let’s start with the good news first. The craftsmanship of the people involved is amazing, considering the low budget. The camera work was excellent despite the obvious limitations - most shots were static, taking full advantage of the meticulous set designs. The supernatural moments (if you could call them that) were traditionally lit in what I call blue-moon glow which definitely added to the scenes.

Last but not least, the editing was superb - as you might imagine when you see it was done by Walter Murch, definitely not a stranger to Coppola movies. Considering the amazing work he did sowing together the different pieces The English Patient, he doesn’t disappoint even though the plot is convoluted.

Which leads us straight to the bad news: the plot. Youth without youth is based on Mircea Eliade’s novella about an old professor who is hit by lightning. This leaves him not only physically younger but also takes his mind faculty to a level beyond that of a mere human. The story is set in 1940s in Romania, so the Nazis get involved almost immediately. Our hero escapes them with the help of the professor who started the whole “healing process”.

At this point of the movie, all kinds of plot devices break lose. First, he meets the reincarnation (?) of his fiance of some 50 years back. In short order, the girl is hit by lightning (talking about lightning hitting twice!) and discovers her own talent - she is aware of her previous lives. In fact, she’s “possessed” by a 7th century Indian girl who only talks Sanskrit. She’s taken to the cave where that girl lived some 14 centuries before …

Now, I’m not going to spoil all the “fun” by revealing all the plot twists from this point on. Frankly, I tried my best to concentrate but the last part of the movie was such an uneven ride that all the craftsmanship in the world could not redeem it.

This is what Variety had to say about the final act:

By the time this stage is reached, the serial-worthy plot has moved through any number of genres without holding onto any of them. Perhaps Coppola’s affinity for a character obsessed by unrealized projects was too close to allow him to see the piecemeal nature of his script, bogged down by endless chatter. Immortality and the ramifications of eternal life, on both ethical and emotional levels, have been dealt with much more effectively in works varying from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (referenced toward the end) and Janacek’s superb, emotionally resonant opera “The Makropoulos Case,” a far more powerful analysis of the cruelty of time.

Amen. Although I secretly hope this isn’t the last movie to come from Coppola.

Review: Planet Terror

Published by Administrator October 8th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Movie Reviews. 4 Comments

Planet TerrorRobert Rodriguez is one of my favorite indie icons, so I was naturally excited to check out his “treatment” of the grindhouse theme. Death Proof has a few excellent scenes but overall was a bit disappointing.

A bit of background: I’ve enjoyed some zombie movies in the past (Night of the Living Dead, Army of Darkness, etc) but I’m not an avid fan of zombies. Survival horror is not exactly my cup of tea.

Back to the movie, the plot premise is simple: “After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it’s up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release.”

Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) works as a gogo dancer at a club and she’ll be the one to kill the most zombies. Her accomplice (ex-lover, fiance, etc) is El Wray (Freddy Rodríguez), whose mysterious past (lost as part of a faux missing reel) has taught him to use everything from knives to guns with deadly efficiency.

You shouldn’t think it’s just two against the world… I mean the zombies. The zombie tradition always presents us with a “ragtag” group of survivors. All of them are well-developed, even ones that get only a few minutes of screen time.

Similar to El Mariachi (and Desperado), Rodriguez introduces an interesting weapon. When zombies run away with Chery’s leg, she’s fitted with wooden leg, which is soon upgraded to a M16. She mows zombies with bullets and destroys them en masse with granades. Reading it might not be fun but seeing it… is another matter. Even my girlfriend was laughing!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Published by Administrator September 15th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and News bits. 0 Comments

Indiana Jones 4 is still in production but now it has an official title. In case you’re wondering what it is… you haven’t read the title. OK, official title will be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Although I find the title a bit long, you gotta love a descriptive title like that. Oh yeah, for those who loved Karen Allen in the Raiders, she’s back.

Review: Interview

Published by Administrator September 10th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Storytelling. 0 Comments

I saw Interview over the weekend. It was definitely worth the 84 minutes. Frankly, I was surprised to see a movie trimmed so nicely as most directors will never admit their movie is shorter than nine rolls.

The movie is dedicated to Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who was tragically murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004. It’s also a remake of Theo’s movie (Interview) which was shown on Dutch television. It seems that Theo originally envisioned a remake with Buscemi and Miller, so in a way they carried on without him.

Interview Sienna Miller Steve BuscemiThe movie’s premise is simple - a journalist has been assigned to interview a B-movie actress that’s also popular with the tabloids.

The journalist (Buscemi) didn’t do his homework (i.e. read the file, watch the movies) because he feels the interview and the interviewee are much below his usual game - polititians in Washington.

The B-movie star, Katya (Sienna Miller), comes an hour late and immediately starts complaining about the table at the restaurant. To cut the long story short, they are off to an awful start. End of Act I.

Acts II and III aren’t that straight-forward. There’s a lot of talking, flirting, drinking, smoking, and more talking. As the movie progresses the journalists loses more and more of his “moral highground”. It’s definitely an interesting movie and I recommend seeing it.

Review: Death Proof

Published by Administrator June 22nd, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 0 Comments

Death Proof posterI’m still not sure how Death Proof is supposed to be “appreciated.”

My rule of thumb is that movies that need 10 things to go right just so you can “appreciate” them are usually movies not worth it. At the same time, my impression of Kill Bill (part I) was pretty negative but then when I saw the second part, I changed my opinon of the whole thing.

If you ask Tarantino, all you need in order to enjoy this movie is a passion for old movies shown in run-down cinemas. Movie that the likes of Roger Corman shot for a weekend on a budget that today won’t cover the light rental for a single day.

Death Proof screenshot

The plot is pretty simple, there are no abrupt turns, unless you count the car chases. Someone summed it up in a sentence: a psycho named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) stalks and kills beautiful women with his car.

I found Tarantino’s famous dialog scenes dragging and the overacting unbearable (obviously it was meant as a reference to the cheeseness in exploitation flicks). So the cheese was a bit much when it comes to the static scenes which probably comprise 80% of the movie.

When he finally hits the car scenes, I wished there was a lot more of them. The stunts, the sounds, the tempo were all so perfect, I walked out of the theater happy. Would I see it again? Not sure… but I’ll sure buy the Death Proof DVD, if I see any of those get-three-for-just-$10 deals.

Review: The Boss of It All

Published by Administrator May 23rd, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, News bits and Storytelling. 0 Comments

The Boss of It AllI like Lars von Trier’s new direction. The movie is a closer to The Idiots than Dogville, and I liked The Idiots a lot.

The premise of the movie is also close to my heart: the IT industry and how a potential acquisition can sour relations. The plot is straight-forward:

The owner of an IT company wishes to sell it. But, for years, he has pretended that the real boss lives in America and communicates with the staff only by e-mail. That way, all the unpopular decisions can be attributed to the absentee manager, while all the popular ones to him directly.

But now, the prospective buyer insists on meeting the big boss in person. In a panic, the owner hires a failed, over-intellectualizing actor to portray him, and the actor proceeds to improvise all his lines, to the consternation of both the buyer and the company staff, who finally get to meet their ghostly boss.

I’ve never seen any of the actors before, with one notable difference - Iben Hjejle. The acting is OK, granted you have Dogme sensibilities. I especially loved the two guys from “Iceland” who were a perfect match of ice and fire. Excellent performance from the lead character as well.

A few observations that really question Lars’s “growth” since the Dogme days. First, the narration attracts attention to the director, while Dogme postulated that the director should remain uncredited. Second, I couldn’t escape the feeling that some of the random compositions - sometime cutting faces in half - were done on purpose, to mock this style of “indie” shooting.

Lars never claimed he would stick to Dogme. In fact, this movie “patented” a new mathematical formula and a process he called Automavision. Here’s what he means by that:

This entails choosing the best possible fixed camera position and then allowing a computer to choose when to tilt, pan or zoom. “For a long time, my films have been handheld,” he explains. “That has to do with the fact that I am a control freak. With Automavision, the technique was that I would frame the picture first and then push a button on the computer. I was not in control - the computer was in control.”

I think THAT explains the erratic camera motions. Anyway, if you have a chance to see the movie, go and check it out, especially if you’re IT!

300 Soundtrack

Published by Administrator May 9th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, News bits and Video Production. 8 Comments

I was very surprised when near the end of 300, I heard a very familiar tune.

In the 300 original soundtrack, the song is called Message for the Queen (number 24 out of 25). In fact, it’s a popular Bulgarian folk song from the Macedonian region called “Zaidi, Zaidi Iasno Slance”. I can definitely distinguish the words when I sampled it at Amazon.

Tyler Bates (the composer behind the soundtrack) has been accused of indiscrimate copying of the Titus soundtrack. Now, I can add Bulgarian folk music to the list as well.

Review: The Last King of Scotland

Published by Administrator April 18th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Storytelling. 2 Comments

The Last King of ScotlandThe movie is nothing short of amazing. A lot of the reviews I’ve read only praise Forrest Whitaker and his amazing performance. What they are missing is that drama needs contrast and what better way to contrast Idi Amin than to have a young Scottish doctor undergo the necessary transformation.

The movie opens with newly graduated doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) who leaves his native Scotland for Uganda. His rebellion is motivated by his father, also a doctor, who wants him to take on the family practice. Nicholas thinks anywhere is better, so he arrives in a rural Ugandan hospital.

Accidentally, he is the only doctor when General Idi Amin (Forrest Whitaker) hurts his hand in a driving accident. Amin immediately likes Nicholas’ attitude and offers him a position as his personal physician.

The movie follows Nicholas’ roller-coaster ride through his interactions with his highly-esteemed patient. Amin’s charisma in the opening scenes gives way to darker overtones as his paranoia takes over. Historians have tried to come up with different explanation on why this changed occurred (some argued syphilis affected his brain some time after he took power but this is not supported by the fact he died in 2003).

Back to the movie, however, Nicholas remains the protagonist but Forrest Whitaker’s Amin steals every scene with his charisma, pathos, brutality, and even humor. The suspense in the last scenes wraps the movie and leaves a taste of what is like to be a favorite to a king who

The movie explores similar ground to Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener (and Lord of War). The range of emotions, however, is closest to Hotel Rwanda - I still vividly remember scenes from it!

Definitely rent the DVD (or get the torrent!).

Rocky Balboa in HD

Published by Administrator March 20th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, News bits and Storytelling. 0 Comments

Rocky BalboaRocky Balboa is out in high definition Blu-ray.

Rocky’s last installment (Rocky Balboa review) is “just” $38.95 at Amazon. The video itself is encoded at 1080p/AVC MPEG-4.

On the down side, there’s no “exclusive” content on disc.

Personally, I’m not that big of a fan of Rocky, so I’m not going to shell 40 bucks on it.

If I’m going to watch something on HD, it better have more “cinematic” qualities.

Basil Poledouris RIP

Published by Administrator February 13th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and News bits. 2 Comments

Conan composer - Basil PoledourisI was going through a Conan fan site today when I saw “Basil Poledouris 1945 - 2006″. Such a loss!

The amazing thing is that I brought Conan’s soundtrack to work today. It’s one of my favorite pieces of music. It’s also one of the best original soundtracks (nominated for Oscar).

If you haven’t listened to it, I urge you to do so. You’ll immediately recognize some of the tracks. For example, Riders of Doom has also been used repeatedly in trailers for The Legend of Zelda series of games by Nintendo. The Anvil of Crom appears on a Gladiator trailer and others. Here’s a snippet from an “independent” review:

Basil Poledouris has written one of the year’s best scores for one of the year’s most wretched films, Conan the Barbarian. Whatever Poledouris saw when he scored this film is a wonder… The score is handsome, strikingly original and, wonder of wonders, sensitive and often convincing in spite of the film’s ghastly stupidity. This is a ceremonial work but is in its own way also concerned with joy. What is celebrated in Poledouris’ ode is nothing less than a triumph over pain and despair, with music of deeply felt certitude. The drama of Poledouris’ sensibilities is not laid on externally, but rises unselfconsciously and drawn to fable scale.

I specifically recommend the following tracks:

  • “Anvil of Crom”
  • “Riddle of Steel” / “Riders of Doom”
  • “Wheel of Pain”
  • “The Kitchen” / “The Orgy”

Review: Blood Diamond

Published by Administrator January 9th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 3 Comments

Blood Diamond Caprio ConnollyI saw Blood Diamond on Saturday and the impression still lingers (I’m not sure if I want to go as far as to call it still a fresh impression).

The movie opens with the mandatory explanatory sequence. In this case, it’s probably necessary since the movie is set in 1999, Siera Leone. At that time, the country is torn by a civil war, with rebels on one side and government troops on the other. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a husband and a father of three, falls in between those two forces.

A rebel group attacks his village and takes him to a working camp to dig diamonds. As chance would have it, he soon finds the biggest pink diamond anyone has seen (a 100-karat monster). He manages to hide it when the government troops assault the camp. He’s then taken to prison as an alleged rebel.

While in prison, the rebel camp commander identifies Salomon as the person who dug the biggest diamond in the world, which makes Leo’s character, South African “soldier of fortune” Danny Archer, go after him.

To cut a LONG story short, the film documents their journey back to the camp where they have to find the diamond and also deal with the unwanted attention of rebel commanders and rogue colonels.

That’s exactly one of the problems of the film - it’s length. It often drags its feet and even the action sequences cannot easily get it running back at full speed. The violence is everywhere but it’s not shocking because it usually happens to innocent bystanders.

Finally, I just can’t picture Leo as the next Rambo. In the several action sequences he shoots cold-heartedly at least a dozen people with a hand gun. I don’t wanna see him get hold of a machine gun, in true Rambo style.

One of the reasons I’m harsh about the movie is that it plays in (roughly) the same league as Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener (throw in Lord of War too). Both had better acting, a more intense plot, and a feeling of conclusion (not always the same as happy end).

Review: Rocky Balboa

Published by Administrator December 8th, 2006 in Book/DVD Reviews, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 5 Comments

The original Rocky is an amazing low-budget flick. Shot on a little more than a million dollar budget, written in three days, it was a case of life imitating art. Or rather, a movie’s success imitating the plot.

The new Rocky Balboa is a return to the original. That’s a good thing. I haven’t seen ALL the Rocky sequels but I’ve seen enough. By Rocky V, they’ve hit rock bottom.

It’s not only me saying it, listen to Sly himself (during a recent interview):

I was very disappointed with the last film (”Rocky V’) and I want to leave people with a good feeling. I missed the mark. It haunted me for years.

In a Rocky documentary, Sly explained that in his original script for Rocky V he dies at the end. The studio refused. Fans of the original have wanted him dead for the last two movies (at least).

Rocky BalboaTrue to the original Rocky story, the movie opens with a vulnerable Rocky. Way past his prime, Rocky is now an owner of a deli and people come to listen to his “war” stories. He and his son, Rocky Jr., have been growing apart. (FYI: Adrian died of cancer in an previous installment).

The inciting incident is a virtual boxing match (on ESPN) that mixes boxers from different generations. They pit the reigning champion, Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon (Antonio Tarver), against Rocky Balboa. Rocky wins the virtual fight which raises the question: “Can he win in real life, despite the 30-year age gap?”.

I like movies that start with a question instead of a statement. Watching the virtual fight, Rocky realizes he misses the sport and wants to go back and do small, local fights. He’s not in for the win but in order to be back to something he’s good at. The doctor is sceptical about Rocky’s shape, so he retorts:

The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very rough, mean place… and no matter how tough you think you are, it’ll always bring you to your knees and keep you there, permanently… if you let it. You or nobody ain’t never gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit… it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward… how much you can take, and keep moving forward. If you know what you’re worth, go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit.

His registering for a license, however, puts him back into the spotlight and into a media storm. Pretty soon, Dixon’s people approach him for a recreating of the virtual fight. The build-up to the fight is predictable but I don’t mean it’s not fulfilling. The fight itself is more human than the fights in the sequels. In a way, it’s closer to the original Rocky.

At the end, Rocky dies. OK, I’m kiddin’. Rocky Balboa’s ending will remain firmly in the spoiler’s section. The best part about the ending is that according to Rocky’s production diary, they have shot not one, not two, but four endings. I’d love to get my hands on a collector’s DVD and see all four of them. Why not, Rambo came out with a collector’s DVD.

Review: Eragon

Published by Administrator November 20th, 2006 in Book/DVD Reviews, Digital Technology, Film School and Movie Reviews. 12 Comments

EragonI can’t help but wince at the sight of Jeremy Irons and dragons. Personally, I love good fantasy, regardless of form but Dungeons and Dragons has to be one of the most repulsive movies I’ve ever seen. Even stupid sequels like Merlin’s Apprentice score higher than D&D.

Most of the criticism has been centered around D&D plot. It’s a common problem when (board) games turn to movies. Eragon has been out in book form, so at least the creators of the film has a substantial plot the base the movie on.

Here’s the plot (more or less):

Eragon takes place in a land called Alagaësia, which is ruled by the despotic king, Galbatorix (John Malkovich). Galbatorix, in his madness, crippled the order of the Riders, and for years, many believed that dragons were extinct.

Eragon is an orphan who lives with his uncle until one day he finds a dragon egg. Galbatorix minions are sent for the egg but the boy manages to escape, so they kill his uncle. Eragon, through his bond with Saphira (his dragon), becomes a Dragon Rider, and seeks to exact revenge on the Ra’zac, Galbatorix’s lieutenant. He begins a journey with Brom (Jeremy Irons), an elderly storyteller from his village, and learns swordfighting, magic, and dragonriding.

Eventually Brom is slayed, so Eragon and Saphira travel to Varden, a hidden rebel alliance. The final confrontation comes when the Varden, the elves and the dwarfs ally together behind Eragon in order to face an army of Urgals, let by a shade. Naturally, they win the battle.

I think by now you get the idea. There are elements from Star Wars (Jedi training by an old master), LotR and other fantasy/sci-fi works. These elements has served the author well because they’ve created a heated debate between critics and readers. The movie will hopefully strike a similar cord with audiences.

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