ERAGON
Okay,a little background. I have been homeschooling for almost 15 years. When the news comes out that a 15year old homeschooler has been published, and in one of my family's favorite genres - fantasy - I get excited; my whole family gets excited. We read Eragon aloud as a family and 3 of us also read it individually. The same goes for Eldest when it came out. (Eldest is the 2nd book in the projected trilogy.) Let me be clear about this. We. Love. Eragon.

When we heard that they were making it into a movie and who all was involved, we were psyched!!! So, to be fair, we went into this movie with HUGE expectations. And, to be blunt, we were tremendously disappointed. Well, everyone except Gini. Gini is a huge book hound but she able to view the book and the movie as totally separate entities. That is probably useful but for me, I just hate when they make major changes in a story when they translate a book into a movie. Small changes are often necessary just for the function of making a movie but major plot changes just bug me.

Christopher Paolini created a world. An entire world with different races of beings and ecosystems and the whole nine yards. He created characters that you could really care about. He created tension and resolution in fair proportions. He did not copy Harry Potter or Dragonriders of Pern or any other fantasy book. I am sure that he was inspired by masters of the genre as any author would be. The problem is that the movie reduced his world to a shadow of itself. They left out entire characters and plotlines that made the story more interesting and well-rounded. They completely left out the relationships and people of Carvahall, which will be of much greater importance to the understanding (and whether or not you give a crap about) the second movie. They reduced Murtagh to a bit part, left out the testing and the Twins and Orick and the dwarves and the Morning Star. The whole bit with the Varden was cut into about a fourth. They reduced Angela to a silly bit part as a fortune teller and omitted Solembum, the werecat, completely. Harmoni was especially disturbed by thefact that they left out Brom's horse, Snowfire, and changed Brom's death and Arya's condition.

I could go on and on. Let me just say that if you can, like Gini, completely separate book and movie, you should enjoy this movie. Assuming, of course, that you are a fan of fantasy films. I have tried to imagine how I would have felt about the movie if I didn't know what I know. Unfortunately for me, it is like trying to imagine how i would feel about an orange from looking at a photo of one if I had never bitten into a ripe, juicy one. I really don't believe they developed the characters into people you really care about; especially Murtagh and Brom. And I am really curious to see how they are going to deal with the second movie since they didn't have Eragon injured in the battle. The people of Carvahall and Eragon's inury, among other things, are very central to Eldest.

My final diagnosis: Gini will buy it. Iwill not have problem with the kids watching it; no earplugs required;o) But, really, left to myself my opinion is, why bother? The book is infinitely richer and more rewarding. 4 (of 6 possible) Stars