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Dude I remember reading this book and looking forward to them making the film. Me and my family went and saw the film in theaters and instantly regretted it. Nothing like we'd hoped for unlike your video. Thanks for the chill monday morning vibes.
wasn't in the budget XD But ye, why the fuck wouldn't you give arya's pointy ear. I was even telling to myself how were they supposed to bring Eragon to the cpaital of the Elves if they all have round ears ? He is supposed to become an hybrid ! HELLO ??? Have you even read the fucking books before doing this film ???
Right. The people in charge of adapting this movie really botched that. I had to remind everyone in the room she was an elf. Like possum said this book was longer than fellowship of the ring but the movie was half as long. So much ruined that it would be impossible to make sequels that make any sense
"Why doesn't Eragon know about shades/urgals/etc." In the book he does, it's just exposited to the reader via narration. Honestly it would have been smarter if, instead of Brom explaining to him, they had him explain these things to Saphira, the dragon whose not even a year old.
To be fair, Brom was an old storyteller that probably didn’t have many opportunities to talk about the magic of the world without getting caught, so I can’t blame him for blurting everything out
It would be a thing people know about, but not something they k n o w about. Like many people in the real world know what a lithium battery is, but not why they tend to explode.
Eragon is typical young character for the young audience to associate themselves with. That's why all the explanations need to be given to him. So even if the plot doesn't make sence, the filmmakers just went with it. And that's why the more logical option was cast aside, because they thought that the young people wouldn't associate themselves with Saphira. It didn't save the bad adaptation, of course.
"Eregon just smiles in delight at the horrifying sight of this thing eating a rat whole" Dude's a farmer. He's probably seen cats maul rats before. I'd imagine he's pretty used to seeing pest animals get eaten by things by this point. If I was Eregon I wouldn't be thinking "Oh god, that's freaky", I'd be thinking "Cool, this should get rid of that pest problem!"
Honestly all I remember of the movie is constantly asking myself "where's his brother?" where's the twins?" "where's him finding the entire village of murdered people?" It's like cutting out the INN scene where they meet Aragon in LOTR, Completely removing Boromir from existing, and no Mary/Pippin'.
I mean arya leaves without Eragon. And she wasn’t even supposed to leave until the sequel. Elva and solembum we’re missing. All the fantasy races were removed or altered beyond recognition
To the question of whether Saphira can hear Eragon’s “fantasies” … yes, yes she can. The reverse is also true, which lead to some interesting situations in the books😂
It's been over a decade since I read them but I just remembered that XD As for him having fantasies about Saphira, I also remember the first time he rode on her, her scales scraped off all the skin on the inside of his legs... so that probably answers that.
The biggest disappointment for me was Tronjheim. In the books it's an enormous stone city in the middle of a kilometre tall caldera (I think there's a mention of stalactites, hundreds of metres long so you can imagine the size of the cave). Not to mention the huge crystal in the middle. Then you see it in the movie and it's just a bunch of tents and huts in a tiny valley... Wtf
honestly, I'm very disapointed about it too. That was supposed to be why the Dwarves were such incredible architects, the damn cristal was supposed to be their beloved symbol of history left from the dragon riders, they are supposed to have dragon chambers in there !!!! Also, wtf is this dragon armour XD the head piece didn't suit the dragon but they didn't change it XDDD, also it's supposed to an old dragon armour a bit tailored to fit Saphira cause it's too big for her, not one made over night XD You would have known if instead of doing a magical ellipse of Saphira growing up WE HAD HER GROWING UP NATURALLY. Also, that's one of the things that made Galbatorix so evil : Thorn, the red dragon hatched for Murthag and Galbatorix's own black dragon were MAGICALLY FORCED TO GROWN, MAKING THEM HURT, AND GROW TOO FAST FOR THEIR MENTAL !!! READ THE DAMN BOOKS BEFORE MAKING A FILM GUYS
the mountains in the book: 10 miles high, the volcano with the 1 mile Tronjheim even higher. the mountains in the film: yeah some 20 meter hills and a giant Rock which is maybe 500m high. And Tronjheim is just some stones in a cave
I was into fantasy as a kid but my family wasn't. I convinced them to watch this movie with me thinking that since the book was good the movie would be too, and they would finally be brought to understand why I loved fantasy so much. I was mortified to find that even my middle school self could tell that the movie was terrible. They made fun of me and, needless to say, I pretty much never tried to get them to understand my interests again. So ya. Thanks a bunch Stefen Fangmeier
I’m into fantasy, my mom is more into sci-fi since she grew up with Star Trek, and my dad is a mix of both (he’s read the Silmarillion and how he keeps all that information in his brain I have no idea lol). I’m in the middle of writing my own fantasy world and my mom is my editor. I admit I have to add context and answer questions she asks because she admits fantasy isn’t her thing so all the extra details sometimes get lost or she forgets things, doesn’t help that I write the chapters in groups of 3 so it’s like 3-4 weeks before she reads another chunk of the story. Meanwhile my dad really enjoyed the book since lore and fantasy is more his thing which really makes me happy 😁 I’m sorry that kind of experience happened to you all because you were just trying to express your interests. We really have proven that *good* book adaptations are once in a blue moon nowadays, and when the stinky adaptations happen to our favorite stories it always stings. My family may not all be into fantasy, but we’re all nerds so it evens out; being made fun of for a reason that isn’t your fault and you could never predict is always depressing 😞
18:07 Fun fact: That dingy village made out of sticks on a lake is a stand-in for _the mercantile core of Alagaesia._ They spend time in civilization in the books, believe it or not.
"My mother left when I admitted I was adopted" is probably the best throw-away joke the Possum has ever made. ALSO - I remember seeing this at my buddy's place and being shocked that he was too dumb to see it was a ripoff of Star Wars. That was a sad day.
@@antjesus5427 The books WERE going to be a trilogy, but he wrote four so it is technically the "Inheritance Cycle". I suppose the best word would be "saga" or something like that.
They found a way to make a movie featuring a Dragon forgettable. That's a dubious achievement IMO Edit: OK, didn't expect this comment to blow up, but I still stand of what I said, even in very bad fantasy movie that has dragons at least have some scene I can remember. Didn't happened with Eragon for me
And it’s one of the better depictions of a dragon with humanity in modern fiction. Normally they are Smaug, a giant lizard monster, or whatever the hell dragons are in Skyrim.
Not really , The 3 LotR movies were filmed at the same time for about $281 milion. They were finished and released over 3 years and the production costs split up between them. ( I presume for tax purposes). LotR saved alot of money by filming all three at the same time. IMO, if they were made Individually and in sequence, each one would have cost more than this movie. Chalk it up to Peter Jackosn , et al, haviing a real good idea on how to save production costs by doing so. That doesn't excuse the fact this movie doesn't look like a $100 million movie, but ILM(industrail light and Magic) CGI ain't cheap. Perhaps the production company did overcharge on sets , becuase they look like chit , as noted. With LotR , Jackson and New-line, made/used their own in-house speciall effects company(Weta Inc), which obviously saved money too. Also note, New Zealand gave the LotR production , some hellified tax breaks , which saved that part of production costs too, as well. LotR is a great study of the economics of making big budget films, on the cheap. Now where is gets kinda weird, is the kid who wrote these Eragon books, probably got more money for his book/film rights, than JJR Tolkien did when he sold LotR to United Artists around 1970. Inflation adjusted, of course .LOL Excuse the long reply
21:57 "Does Eragon even know how to read" In the book he literally doesn't at that point of the story, but he still knows more of the world than in the movie lol In the books it's actually a pretty important plot point when Brom teaches Eragon how to read, because it allows them to track down the base of the ra'zac.
In the book, the whole „the stone is an egg?” Thing was much better written, with the fact that dragons died like… 150 years ago? So when eragon found the egg he thought that this was a gemstone, of an royal, and tried to sell it to a jeweler. This also explains the smoothness of the stone, because he thought it was polished.
He tried to sell it to the butcher for meat, which the butcher rejects because of his superstition towards the spine. The smith comes in and buys the meat in exchange for Eragons help later.
Brom's death in the book actually happens way before Eragon is brought to the prison. He dies after several days of suffering from wounds that were inflicted by the Razaac during a nighttime ambush, and in the intervening time Murhtag joins the party. It's actually Murhtag who goes to rescue Eragon when he's captured by Urgals and is hauled off to the dungeon. So in a story was already very derivative of Star Wars, they changed one of the biggest plot points to be EVEN MORE like Star Wars.
Going back, I realize that Eragon's prison time was actually epic from a retelling point. He gets captured and imprisoned in a prison he wanted to get into to rescue the girl from his dreams. He meets Durza and, when Durza asks him who he is he basically replies with "I'm your worst nightmare", a prophecy he would later fulfill by earning the title shadeslayer, he effectively bamboozles Galbatorix's right hand man, resists the drugging and escapes on his own, rescuing the princess and completely disappointing his best buddy/half-brother who just came to save him. I know that the dragons were helping him, but from a regular human's perspective, Eragon must be the most badass dude ever just for this.
@EightFootSativa Also, Eragon get dunked on, has his sword stolen, and still suffers like hell because of the huge scar on his back from the Shade, loses his fully charged OP soul belt in third book Ye, tough times
@EightFootSativa My single biggest problem with the novels was the revelation of Brom as Eragon's father. I always felt that the story worked best if both were the full sons of Morzan. My other great novel problem, though there was a set up for it, was the freeing of Murtagh through his relationship with Nasuada changing his real name. I always felt that this development was forced because he wanted a redemption arc for him. I have long believed this was possible through other means.
I love how done Possum is with everything this episode. “Oh no, a dragon!- let’s just get to the video.” “I’m gunna read your ten dollar patroons.” “Everyone is going to skip this part.”
I do miss his skits sometimes. I know they’re a little bit of a faux pas in the RUclips critic landscape now thanks to Channel Awesome but the skits in his Dumbo and Amazing Bulk reviews were genuinely the best part and really added to the overall experience.
I think Jeremy Irons was a fan of the books. I always feel bad for an actor who joins a project out of passion just to be contractually forced to helplessly ruin an IP.
Before we had the terrible Avatar TLA show to live action movie adaptation, I had this Eragon book to movie adaptation. Avatar didn't hurt as much as Eragon did. I remember my dad took me to see this movie in the theater because I had read the books multiple times, and angrily walking out of the theater and my dad asked me what was wrong with the movie. I told him that the only similarities between that movie and my beloved books were the title and the names of the characters.
I mean, at least the ATLA adaptation has some funny-bad moments, like the earthbending scene. The only funny thing about this movie is that they went out of their way to hire John Malkovich to play a character that shouldn’t be seen until the end of the series.
In the book, it is explained that Saphira didn't try to help Uncle Garrow because she was young and afraid. She was terrified of the idea of Eragon dying, so she just GRABS him and flies off. It's a few days before she lets him go back, AFTER their first flight strips the skin off his legs. And on why a dragon and rider die together is due to the psychic link between them. You feel a part of yourself die, and it usually drives the other insane and makes them suicidal to join your heart-partner in the afterlife.
Interestingly, the telepathic bond between sapphira and eragon is commented on. They block each other out unless they deliberately call to each other. kinda like a psychic phone call they can ignore if they want too. at least until they meet another dragon rider whose supposed to teach them more about the whole dragon rider thing. then they are forced to have an open line between them 24/7 and they aren't allowed any privacy, lol. Also, the Dragon and riders weren't bond to each other, so that if the dragon dies the rider dies. It was a plot point in the books that dragons lost riders and vise versa all the time. It left mental scars and sometimes the survivor would commit suicide rather then be without their partner, but otherwise, the surviving partner didn't keel over. they could even re-bond on occasion with another dragon.
Hell, that's Galbatorix's whole schtick. His dragon died and he went mad with grief and stole another dragon egg. It's a MAJOR plotpoint, that proves the movie producers had no idea what they were doing.
@@video-luver769 fact that they just didn't read the books XD And honestly, the huge emtional plot at end was supposed to be about Eragon winning 1v1 against the Shade and his men getting scared for life and Saphira breaking the Dwarf's star cristal breathing fire for the first time to save, not wathever healing spell bullshit this is XD Honestly, he could heal way before (hell, Saphira had torn wings because of arrows when they fled with Arya and Murthag and he managed to heal everything) And ye, I think about the shadow dragon thing the Shade rode and... "Oh guys, we need them to have a dragon fight ! - But Galbatorix isn't supposed to act in the first film sir - But they have an evil black dragon right ? Give it to the Shade guy - That's supposed Galbatorix's dragon sir - ADD A BLACK EVIL SHADY DRAGON - ..." Yeah... They wanted epic fantasy , well that's just bad, shoud've gone for the book XD
If I'm not mistaken, it is specifically said that a Rider may survive the death of their dragon, but that there is no known example of the reverse. Hence why it is a huge point in the books that Eragon *must* be captured and coerced in order for Saphira, the last female dragon in existence (I mean, that's later in the books, but still.), to mate with Shruikan, for Galbatorix to get his own dragon rider army.
@@NWolfsson Shruikan himself is a known example, Galbatorix killed his rider and rapemagiced Shruikan to serve him. I always understood the relationship as: "Riders and dragons both suffer immensely if their so dies, but riders had a time in their life before they knew their dragon, while dragons never were without their rider. So for dragons the mental impact is even more devastating and they usually go kamikaze or die from depression-related actions, even more so than the humans."
In the novel Saphria killing the Razaak is out of the question. She nowhere near big or strong enough and she is immensely terrified of them, calling 'egg smashers' and 'oathbreakers'. She prioritizes Eragon's safety over Garrow because he is her rider and that link in sacred. She feels guilt over Garrow but ultimately she saved Eragon.
@@alexandergreene461 Ya, the movie botched a lot of the growth involved with Saphria and its really annoying. The size she was in the movie she could have easily shredded the Razaak.
@@alexandergreene461 sapphira isn't the size of an eagle in those parts, she's big enough for Eragon to ride her. She just flies high enough that she can be mistake for an eagle on the ground
Hey, remember when John Boyega (Finn) told Poe that Stormtroopers in the 1st. Order are taken as kids and indoctrinated to serve? And five minutes later he shoots them galore and cheers about it.
Apparently, if you'd read the book(or comic, don't remember) you'd know that other troopers threated Finn poorly so it's okay for him to shoot them all. Seriously - it's one of of the arguments I read about the little traitor.
@@JohnDoe-cz5yz Well, I don't want to read a comic to understand the movie. Especially with a movie that doesn't make sense in the first place. All I heard through osmosis is that he was a janitor because he used to fuck up but was the top of his class which sounds like an oxymoron.
@@simonrobillard Well, the best scene was when Cpt. Phasma teleported into the shuttle to scold Finn for taking off his helmet. What an awesome power from a dollar store toy.
My main problem with the Ra'zac is that, in the books they're the humanoid larval form of a larger, more dangerous creature similar to dragons, called Lethrblaka (Leather-blah-kuh). In the movie... they're a feat of necromancy? Something that's not even possible in the books.
@@Galiant2010 Third book. The original Ra'zac from the first book were killed at the start of the third book. And then in the fourth book a couple of Ra'zac eggs were introduced, before being swiftly dealt with.
@@timothymarzelli3874 Ah, it's been at least 10 years since I read the books lol. I remembered it was the yellow one, Brisingr, but my memory was thinking that was the last one. But the point still stands. They killed them off in this movie for no reason when they still had an important role in future story beats.
Not to mention they both have more dialog and outlast Durza, they are actually larger villains than he is. Can you imagine Saruman having no dialog and Gandalf just casually killing him in Fellowship of the Ring film? That's pretty much the treatment these two antagonists got in this film.
Can we talk about Saphira growing up magically ? I've not seen a comment about it yet. I mean, THAT'S PART OF WHAT MAKES GALBATORIX EVIL ! Remember Thorn, Murthag's red Dragon ? Or Galbatorix's Black Dragon, Shruikan ? OR JUST HOW THEY WERE MAGICALLY FORCED TO GROW UP FUCKING THEM UP PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY ? How could they have a sequel to fucking up so badly ? Part of the fucking plot is : "Galbatorix is so evil, he even goes to torture Dragons, and makes them grow insanely fast which makes them hurt so much they can go insane. Yeah, their mental doesn't follow their body so they are basically babies which immense strengh, adding up trauma of suffering." Ye, they haven't read the books did they ? No they didn't...
@@Davinhomx Because it's one thing to have knowledge of something, and quite another to have experience in it, like in the Novels when Saphira first learns to use fire, which an instinctive trait of her race she described it as "Imagine every time you raised your hand lightning struck" She had to learn through her own development how to not accidentally burn anyone or anything near her every time she breathed out
'Was this in the book?' Yes, in the book everyone thinks the egg is a stone because it's smaller and looks crystalline with white quartz veining. Galbatorix isn't in the first book so he never calls it a stone. The whole stone thing makes more sense in the book. Edit: On the issues of The Legend of the Riders and Durza. Galbatorix outlawed retellings of the Legend so some people have vague knowledge of the Riders and Brom's story is meant to be a complete picture of what happened, even if it means he's breaking the law. With Durza, Shades aren't common knowledge, as they are blasphemous creations that only serve their own dark self-interests. They are also exceedingly rare. The Urgals however, Eragon already knew about as in the book there's one's horns mounted in the village tavern. The Urgal/Galbatorix alliance is secret, only the upper most military officers know and that hurt Galbatorix in the long run as the Urgals ditch him for the Varden after they see he just sees them as pawns. Eragon, in fact, doesn't know how to read. It's something he's embarrassed about and he learns to in Drasliona iirc. Brom told Saphria he was a rider but swore her to secrecy in Elvish, which is a language that binds one and cannot lie. This happened after Eragon used magic the first time and was out for 3 days. The diamond tomb is what gets referred to as a Dragon Miracle. Saphria does this a few times and its because dragon have the deepest connection to the flow of magic that they can perform feats that can only be described as miracles.
Also, IIRC, Brom gets mortally injured not by Durza, but by the Ra’zac as he and Eragon fled from Dras’leona, with Murtagh being the one who rescues Eragon from the prison in Gil’ead (as Durza didn’t have his own villainous lair in the book) after Murtagh’s scouting attempt of the garrison there goes awry, so this movie takes so many liberties with the source material that it’s an insult to anyone who’s read the books.
@@Jolis_Parsec Ya, Brom dies protecting Eragon and Murtagh takes over Brom's position for a bit of the novel, even sparing with Eragon. The movie is downright insulting and the stuff they cut irks me greatly.
HA! Nerd. But seriously that is surprisingly in depth and well thought out for a book from what's basically Star Wars with dragons written by a 15 year old.
@@GenericProtagonist118 he even sets things up that pay off books later, eragon gets severely and magically injured by Durza in the final confrontation, these injuries plague Eragon for all of Eldest and a portion of Brisingr. That injury sets the stage for most of Eragons character development, which is then excluded completely from the movie, hindering the story. I'm glad I watched the movie as a kid before reading the books
The dragon was barely flying with 3 people on her back, but suddenly she can wear armor and carry her rider who is also in armor and can fly and fight?
You obviously don't play video games. Human bodies weigh MUCH more than armor, you see; that's why you can carry twenty separate sets of full plate armor in your backpack, but can't grab your nearest buddy and sling them out of the way of the oncoming monster attack. Silly.
I'd say that's not that far fetched. Don't remember exactly how long passed between the escape from Gilead and the final battle but she grows really fast and is probably a bit stronger by then. She also got shot several times by arrows while escaping. I expect it also has a lot to do with weight distribution. Armor is designed to be comfortable. It's a lot easier to move around in a 40 pound suit of armor than with a 40 pound backpack on your back
As a fan of the books (flawed or not), It was really an experience to watch this movie, it gave me the feeling, that they didn't even make the movie based on the books, but rather someone just asked "What Eragon is about? Tell me in 10 short sentences" and then someone did and they made the movie based on those 10 sentences.
Fun Fact: Arya is an ELF... And Durza is not a wizard, he's a shade. A mage with the power to control spirits (not dead people, nature spirits), but when the spirits overcome their master they take possession of him and a shade is born. A powerful collective, almost immortal, can cast magic and is basically unstoppable except by elves who are almost as powerful, or Dragonriders (that don't exist anymore). Durza is also the one who helped Galbatorix to beat the Riders, and only served him once Galbatorix became more powerful than anyone in existence (I won't spoil why, but it's BRILLIANT).
As a teen that read and loved the books, this movie was a cruel slap in the nuts. Then the video game was 12 consecutive kicks to the jewels, cause it was based on the movie.
Funny thing, I hadn't heard about Eragon when the movie came out, my friends and I (ten years old at the time) just thought, "Hey movie with dragon, let's watch". Reading the book AFTER seeing the awful adaptation is an interesting experience.
They had so much potential to work with. It really could have turned into a wonderful series. But instead we got....this. I remember watching this excitedly in the theaters only to be infuriated
Whats even more infuriating is that messing with the source material for the directors own ‘vision’ is now encouraged to ruin franchises like with rings of power and she hulk.
@@firenze6478 Oh, screwing with the source material has been a problem for a LONG time in Hollywood; they just happened to find new ways and excuses to do it and defend it afterwards.
I watched the movie twice. First time I had no idea about the books but thought the movie looked interesting. It was incredibly stupid and I promptly forgot about it. The second time was after I read the books. The books are really well done, with the author actually describing the opening scene as if it were a movie. Given that the author's immature writing was perfectly suited for making into a movie, I was really excited when I found out there was an Eragon movie! I think it was about half way through that I realized I'd already seen this shit before and that it was nearly impossible to align this nonsense with the book. Also, HOW did they screw up the opening scene? HOOOOOOWWWWWW?!?!!?
And to be fair to the books, which were admittedly written by a teenager, most of the weird/bad things about the movie are different from the book seemingly without reason
@@SwiftNimblefoot if you can get past that, the books are honestly pretty good. The movie really does reduce the plot to a point where the flaws are all that's left
Aye, almost all plotchanges make it more of a Star Wars Copy (for example: the little "seedy town" is one of the most heavily fortified and important trading hubs of the empire and their only contact with the enemy is talking to some guards while tricking them to get inside the city archives)
@@oromis900 reading the book while squinting you could see the rough format, kind of the typical dead uncle + evil empire + magic chosen one thing, but the movie is almost a shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope
@@Cepaceous definitely, although I would say you could try and excuse most of it as copying common fantasy tropes. As I said, the movie is more of a star wars copy than the book, but the book is still somewhat... Let us call it inspired by New Hope.
It's always weird when they change things in movies based on books. Like the egg looking like an egg when in the books I believe it is specifically stated that Dragon eggs look like stones so it makes sense no one knows what it is.
Well they do need to change some things, especially condensing/cutting scenes and often reworking dialogue and character moments because we don't get narration anymore. But...yeah they sometimes change baffling things they didn't really need to, and that doesn't really seem to improve anything. I don't know why.
@@SebasTian58323the way I always imagined it when it was reading was that it was egg shaped but more gem like, sort of like if a sapphire gem was cut into a vague shape of an egg (since it was supposed to be blueish)
they changed stuff, even something as simple as eragons brother getting conscripted, he wasn't conscripted as the reason for leaving the village, he was going into an apprenticeship under a blacksmith that was situated in a city.
Thank you for giving a mostly unbiased view of this movie. I'm really happy to know it sucked to people who DIDN'T read the book, too. Also, the town of huts on stilts was supposed to be a whole city, stone and nice houses with a docks district built entirely on the water.
The city was called Tierm, and a lot of important things happened there in the building, like Eragon learning how to read, meeting Jeod, and meeting Angela the Herbalist, who both become important characters later on
Also, Saphira figures out that Brom was a dragon rider a LONG time before this. At a certain point he pats her on the nose, which lets her sense his rider's mark, but he tells her not to say anything to Eragon.
She knows from her first meeting, after he spoke with her through his thoughts to not interfere, so he can talk to Eragon. He revealed it to her, so she trusts him.
@@SaridenChan It's been a LOOOONG time since I read the novels. Btw if you haven't, you should read The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm: Tales from Alagaesia.
"He tries to milk his baby dragon" I've never heard that one before. I've heard of spanking your monkey and tugging the rope before but never anything about milking a baby dragon
One aspect I liked about Eragon, the book, was the magic system: it was explored in depth, and was an interesting process of understanding how its language worked, and using it in an efficient way. The book is not a masterpiece, but I liked the descriptions and the characters were decent for being so archetypical... Now, the movie was unable to keep any of that, and felt rushed in almost all spots, with the "magical assassins" not being killable, pretty much.
I'd agree, but even his explanations leave one feeling like they need explanations. Why is a language magic, and what makes it magical? Where does magic originate? Who determines everyone's true name? Why does magic just draw upon fatigue points? Why are crystals nothing more than magic batteries? Why do dragons develop magic bonds with people, why can't they just operate solo? Where do dragons originate? While the series is impressive in regards to it being the creation of a 15-year-old, one can't forget that it's the creation of a 15-year-old, so there's a ton of missing stuff because it takes time for a person to mature, absorb necessary ideas, and mull them over. I wonder how Paolini would write the series starting now rather than when he was 15.
@@mallios13 Supposedly, he isnt done with it. I recall reading somewhere that he intends to go back to the Eragon series to wrap up some loose ends in the future, but hes currently working on other projects. How likely that is, I dont know.
@@mallios13 a lot of those are actually answered in the rest of the books. The ancient language is not inherently magical. Magic is an independent thing. Ancient language is just very effective for focusing the magic to do something, probably due to the "you can't lie" thing. The true name is like the most basic and core description of a person in the ancient language, and names having power over people is a pretty common thing in ancient myths and folklore and stuff. Magic makes you tired because it requires energy, from yourself or elsewhere. Crystals being batteries is probably just because paolini thought it would be cool. Dragons have been in alagaesia before any of the other races so nobody really knows. Dragons develop bonds with riders due to some magical peace pact at the end of the elf dragon war, and humans were included later. Obligatory 🤓
@@mallios13 So most of those bigger issues are actually covered in the books. Mostly in Eldest while he is training. They don't give us an origin for magic per se. Though we do learn why is it language based. The true names are just the most accurate words to describe you in the ancient language basically. Magic draws on your stamina because it still requires the energy to act you might not like that as an explanation but it is just a rule of this magic system. Over the years the elves found they could store magic in certain gemstones and that is about the most explanation we get there though that isn't a big deal over all. Just another way magic works in universe I suppose. They DEFINITELY cover the dragon bond thing. I don't want to get into it to much in case others haven't read the books but the books are pretty clear on it. As for where the dragons came from... they are just natural creatures in the universe who were they before even the elves. If you want to go after the books you go after the last one lol. They rest are actually pretty solid from memory though after this video I think I will go through them again. It is kind of a journey I take again ever year or two anyways lol.
I love how in the books, the water village is actually one of the biggest human cities, and probably the biggest port in the known world. And there is an entire sub-plot with the guy Brom talks to, and the fortune teller Eragon talks to becomes one of the major side characters who offers a lot of insight and lore about the world throughout all of the books, and who also joins and fights alongside Wardens (she even was one of my favorite characters lol)
Angela, the fortune teller will forever be my favorite character from the books. She's hilarious, like one of the only truly funny characters with sassy dialogue in the book besides Saphira. And she's a badass fighter with the coolest weapon in the whole series, so powerful the dwarves practically worship her. And she's based on the author's sister so I guess that's why they made her character so cool.
@@malachicole9551 Yes, I loved her character in the book. But the movie really wrecked her with terrible acting, and changed her personality. I was upset with most of the characters in the movie actually, but I think they did hers the worst.
@@malachicole9551 If you don’t make a few ememies now and then, you’re a coward-or worse. Besides, it as worth it to see his reaction. - This line right here is the reason why she is my all time favorite character in eragon
Yeah, the Tierm part also taught Eragon how to read, which is pretty significant plot wise. We also meet Jeod, who's a very important character later on
In the book Brom is killed by the Ra'zac before Eragon is ever captured by Durza. In the book, Durza is controlling the Urgals. So when he dies, they stop fighting the humans and dwarves (yeah, bearded dude is a dwarf. Couldn't tell, could ya?) and instead start fighting each other cause they're all from different tribes, or just retreat. It's really best to assume all the plot points in the movie are wrong because so much is changed. You'll be wrong far less that way.
As a reader of the books and someone who has seen the movie, for the love of god, read the books if you're a fantasy fan. Yes, the plot of the first book has some relation to the pacing of A New Hope, but the entire world Eragon is based in is entirely unique. Every question Possum had in this is answered in stride in the actual story. For instance, why dies Eragon seemingly know so little about the outside world? Well, he is a bit more knowledgeable than the movie counterpart, yes, but the village he lives in is almost the most segregated village of the entire empire and world map, so news, soldiers, and all of that would almost never come to said village, save through the few villagers who travelled to trade. Its a great series and I am hopeful that it will get a second chance with a true collaboration with the author, unlike this expensive mess
As someone who read the books, no, don't read them. Unless your standards for fantasy is really low. I read them when they were new and I was a kid, and even then I could barely stand them. Eldest was abysmally bad. It's a well written series for a 15-year-old, and it may outshine the fantasy works of puerile adults, but it doesn't hold a candle to well crafted fantasy worlds made by well adjusted adults. I'd be more curious to see Paolini rewrite the series from the ground up now that he's like 40 and has over a couple decades to absorb more ideas and refine his writing.
@Motsognir well, to each their own. I have read Tolkien, GRR Martin, McCaffrey, Lewis, Goodkind, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer fantasy, and many more. As a simple series, I guess one that holds a childhood fondness for me, I like the Inheritance Cycle. More than lewis and martin, that's for sure. Not saying Paolini wrote at a higher level than either of them, and I would agree that it's written simply, and in the teen fantasy novel genre, but its not some terrible series that couldn't have made a much better movie, even though it carries many plot points of obvious sources.
@Nirmiti idk what makes you think a comment is 'invalid' since it's clearly related to the source material for the 'movie review' and all so, yeah, kind of relevant. If you think a conversation about anything other than the 'movie review' is somehow 'invalid' when it was mentioned in the 'movie review', I can't help but say that I don't follow your logic. Have a nice day.
The whole Eragon thing tells me that success is half "what you know" and half "who you know." The kid was definitely a more capable writer than other 15-year-old kids I've known, so he clearly had at least a little knowledge of how to write, but he never would have been discovered if his family hadn't owned a publishing company, and I doubt he would have gotten published otherwise.
Fair enough but I’m kinda glad he had the connections and wrote the books imo they are pretty good literature and we’re some of my first major reads when I was young
Paolini also had great support by his producing team and friends and family. In typical writer fashion, he dedicates a couple pages to all the people who helped him write the books in all manners of ways. Reading it helps you understand that these books are not just the work of a genius, but of many dedicated people carefully and patiently working together to refine and perfect the story the author wants to tell, polishing it until the sharp edges are gone and the surfaces shine brightly.
16:42 Another case of a book written by a teen making more sense than this movie: In the books Saphira flies either high enough to pass for a bird (dragons being able to fly at heights that humans cant even breathe at, so its similar to watching a plane fly overhead) or she flies close enough to the ground to use hills etc as cover (the main issue was other travelers on the same route Brom and Eragon used seeing the dragon and spreading the word, so it was enough that Saphira was hidden from the road, not hidden from the ground in general).
I feel the same way comparing Draco to Smaug in the Hobbit trilogy. Especially when you consider that Weta had to amputate Smaug's forelimbs because animating a four-legged dragon was too much work for them, so they just made him a wyvern despite Tolkien's own illustration of Smaug depicting him with four legs. Weta can brag about how it took them 2 weeks to render each scale on his body, but that's not impressive so much as it sounds immensely wasteful, and they still had to make him a wyvern rather than a proper dragon. And when I say "amputate," I mean that literally. The original theatrical release of An Unexpected Journey only featured Smaug in little bits, but the CGI model for those quick flashes did have four legs. When they did Desolation of Smaug, they removed the forelimbs from the model, and retroactively changed AUJ's home release so eagle-eyed viewers couldn't spot a four-legged dragon. They actually went to that effort to be lazy.
Ehh.... no, not really. Honestly that movie had really dodgy CGI. Reign of Fire, now THAT holds up, because it wisely mostly kept the dragon appearances at night. Eragon was a crappy movie, but Saphira actually looks pretty detailed and the facial animation is quite good.
I saw the name "eragon" and imagined it was made because the author mistyped "dragon" one time on a keyboard and before he deleted it was like "you know what? That's actually kinda cool!"
Alright I read the books here the lore, and it's actually kinda cool I think: the main Eragon, the main character, is named after the ORIGINAL Eragon, who was the first person to ever befriend dragons. But at that point dragons as a species had no name, so they took Eragons name and created the word "dragon". Personally I think that's pretty cool but might be just me
It's not, Christopher Paolini, the author, who was 15 when he wrote Eragon, loved Lord of the Rings, so he named his main character Eragon (like Eragorn)
I remember my mom dragging me out to see this movie in theaters, she expected it to be amazing because, and I quote "the writer grew up on a farm, which means he must have an amazing imagination, because otherwise he would have died of boredom because he was living on a farm his whole life." It's only all these years later that I realize my mother has a low opinion of the rural lifestyle...
I think the giant monster at the end is supposed to be an adult razac. In the book its explained that they start up as intelligent humanoids and as they mature, they turn into giant bird/bat creatures, that can overpower even dragons. I read the books a long time ago, but i think there were only 2 of them.
Given how the Raz'zac in this version are dirt monsters, maybe their parents are shadow monsters. But it doesn't really make sense. They were described as having four legs and wings, thick muscles visible through their naked skin and with beaks.
I dint think so, they don't really explore that until the 3rd book, and this catastrophe changes the rules to the point where I don't think they read any other books.
Nah, they couldnt overpower Dragons. Saphira took on both of them and only really got injured because they were in an enclosed space and took her by surprise. The moment she got her claws on them, they were done.
As someone who has read the books I can say without a doubt that they're very well written and definitely worth the read. When I saw the movie after reading the books I was actually disgusted on how they handled everything and how much things were changed.
They cut the twins... I actually saw this with my friend when it hit theaters in middle school. His dad picked us up straight from the school and took us to the theater. We were like 12 and walked out of the theater wondering wtf we had just watched.
The books were great. I read them multiple times throughout high school, the school's librarian actually gave me a copy of the first book because I found it on one of those rolling shelf things that wasn't registered into the system
@@GoodHunter9 I still can't believe that they did that... especially since the twins were one of the reasons the varden was in shambles and the urgle army along with Durza could even get in in the first place, if memory serves (its been a couple of years since I've read the book).
I never normally leave comments but, as an avid fan of the books since I was a child, I would like to thank you so much for both reinforcing what an absolute insult this film is to Paolini (who pretends it doesn't exist when asked) and for doing enough research to point out some of the biggest inconsistencies that are actually much better explored in the books. I try to watch this every now and then and make a tally of all the ways they monumentally messed up and I can never get more than 30 mins in without rage quitting.
@@alexandergreene461 Eragon definitely is the flattest character of the bunch at the start. He does get a little better later on as the author got older and realized some mistakes he made and added to stuff in the later books though. But still definitely "Dude who does things" lol
Also the Razac are some of the characters who were portrayed in the worst way. They were the arch enemies of the dragons in the books, capable of fighting toe to toe with a fully trained dragon rider. And here some farm boy kills one of them instantly.
I read the novels, and I have seen the movie. The number of other problems and discrepancies is fast. 1) Eragon nearly kills himself attempting to produce water in a desert. 2) Murtagh trains Eragon with the sword picking up where Brom left off, a scene or montage cut from the movie, but included in the photographs of the movie edition of the book. 3) The villainous twins and the magic users of the Varden are missing. 4) Eragon takes a severe injury to his back that leaves him nearly crippled through the majority of the next book. 5) There are voices that communicate to him as he is fading out instructing him to come and see them. 6) Lastly, though there are many other issues even I have not addressed, Angela is not Angela!! She is a woman of indeterminate years possessed of a mercurial temper and an even more outlandish sense of the ridiculous. She is far more than the surface for that she seems and is skilled both in magic and in combat. She drives Eragon to distraction, but her lessons teach him to be more considerate and thoughtful, not make rash assumptions, and to see the many angles of an issue. She is also likely the strongest wielder of magic in the entire novel with Eragon having the potential to be her only rival. This humble yet ferocious presence from the novel is reduced to a mere fortune teller of no significance.
@@dissolution9843 i always love the difference in power between fantasy and sci-fi worlds. like i love me my sci-fi. planet destroying weapons, warping vast interstllar and sometimes intergalactic distances, insanely cool robotics and then fantasy comes in and says "yeah, ill just dilate time rq, hold on." i love fantasy worlds just as much but there isn't a limit when it comes to magic and its always fascinating to observe
I remember when this came out. My friends and I liked the books quite a bit, even if it was pretty obvious they borrowed from other stories heavily. We were so ticked off at the movie. Seriously, the Urgals have ram horns. It's a major defining feature and plays into their culture quite a bit when you learn about them in later books. The movie director claimed they didn't have horns in the movie for some reason like he was making them more his thing. Came off like a total idiot. The horns were what made the Urgals somewhat unique. Without them they're just people with a weird name.
@@spartan1879 I don't think it's that far-fetched. He already knows how to speak, so I would assume if the Alagaesian language is only a tad bit more regular than english, by knowing roughly how the letters sound he could be able to read in a matter of days, albeit slowly, like he does in the book. As a matter of fact, you could learn to read Korean in hours.
Its funny you ask if Sapphira can hear Eragon's thoughts even when he's thinking of mush, because in the books Eragon has a huge crush on Arya and would often fanatsize about her to the point it became a little obsessive. Sapphira would hear everything going on in his head to the point she literally had to talk him out of it at times, especially after he got rejected by Arya in the third book. However, Sapphira has to also be at a certain distance in order to hear Eragon's thoughts so if she's far enough away from him then she can't hear him even if he calls her.
40:12 So fun fact about the budget! Apparently they modeled Saphira before they had actually finalized her design and had to waste massive amounts of money fixing her /several/ times over during the course of production.
Why the Shade and Soldiers do what they do really only makes sense in the books. So anybody in service to the king is sworn to serve him in the ancient language. The language that’s used for the series Magic system. Because they’re sworn in under their “true names”, they can’t do anything but obey the king. The soldiers are also a lot more intense too. Because they’re enchanted to not feel pain. Which makes them bolder and more of a force to be reckoned with because without pain it takes substantially more effort to take them down. Like zombies that still have fully fit and healthy bodies. Eragon’s cousin is more badass too. Takes up a sledgehammer and makes a name for himself with it. He’s John Henry, and the soldiers were just railroad spikes. Also. Safira drinks Mead. She bites the barrel and drains it. I don’t know why but that’s hilarious to me. You think DUI is bad, imagine that with dragons.
I sometimes feel bad for the soldiers. From descriptions of the battles, it is clear that many of them are conscripts that simply do not want to be there in any capacity. And then sometimes we get instances where the soldiers would also happily rape the female characters. And my sympathy for them just flies away.
@Ni-dk7ni especially in eragon since it was said multiple times soldiers are there but the real battle is fought between the mages who protect them from enemy mages since 1 well skilled mage can just sever some veins in the brain and the whole enemy army is dead. i think we even see that in the books a couple times but im not completely sure since it was about 5 years since i read them.
worst part is that the elves and dwarves are nonexistent. and that sucks as some of the dwarves are just absolutely amazing characters that really make the slow parts of the story so much more interesting.
Not to mention that it's a pretty significant plot point later that Eragon is adopted by a dwarf clan leader, which helps a lot with rallying more people and utilizing the honor of that title. And the reason why that dwarf has so much authority is because he's a badass leader in the books who does a ton of stuff...and promptly doesn't even exist in the movie.
exactly. there is a whole section of the 3rd book where he spends it with the dwarves. followed by his time with the elves to get his proper sword. @@joshuakim5240
I understand a book cannot directly translate to film. However, im becoming more and more suspicious that it is at least partly an excuse for creatively bankrupt showrunners to put in their own stupid ideas out of arrogance. They need to make the story their own. They actually think they're on the same level as the person who created the story, so instead of tailoring the story to fit, they actually change it. The "evil cannot create anything new" quote has been popular for this exact reason.
Kind of stopped in the middle of the third book, but I remember the scene where Eragon is turned into a half-elf and realises that he's actually a freak of nature now and can never re-enter human society properly. Also, Eragon takes Seraphina to space, they both nearly die and promise each other to never do that again.
@@5peciesunkn0wn Eragon having his mind blown by seeing with his own eyes that "the sky is hollow, and the earth is round" is one of my favourite scenes from that book for some reason.
@@matthewbreytenbach4483 It's just a great scene. It was probably similar to what some people's first reactions to flying on a plane back when they were first being built was.
@@matthewbreytenbach4483 I always imagine it like scene of Neo & Trinity flying into Machine City from Matrix: Revolutions, but with some modifications. Eragon & Sapphira are flying through storm, wind is tossing them around, they clearly are struggling. Then, they are above the clouds, we see curvature of horizon, black space above them with grey and white storming clouds below. Cut, we see utter shock and realisation of their smallness on Eragon face, and they both plunged into freefall into storm. They just fall, Sapphira is barely holding straight position. Cut. We had gigantic panorama shot of Vroengard, Sapphira is only a tiny dot on screen, there is storm and lightning in slow-mo. Cut. Frantic and panicked perspective of both rider and dragon.
Considering how many of the dragon's lines are just rehashing the obvious/ don't add much to the plot, they could've removed them from the screenplay entirely and it wouldn't have changed much. It seriously feels like her lines were added as an afterthought. The books make it very clear that she's an individual with her own thoughts, feelings, and desires; the movie treats her more like an oversized doggie.
2:35 One of my close friends really wanted to see this movie when it was in theaters and the previews for it were on TV. He kept calling it "E-Dragon" no matter how many times me, my wife, or his girlfriend corrected him. We weren't even children or something, we were in our early 20s. He was just dyslexic and almost functionally illiterate. Cracked me up to see you point out the obvious there.
Noone mentioned this yet so l gonna say it. In the book they won so easily because the urgal army was just a conglomeration of various enemy tribes that were only following durza because of some magic mind control powers and after his death they simply lost their shit and started to flee and killing each other. Also there were actually dwarfs in thronheim tons of them in fact and the warden were merely seeking refuge there.
I don't think that tronjheim was a much populated city, mostly because the farms were elsewhere, but there were definitely a lot of dwarves. Tronjheim is holy to them after all. The star saphire is their pride and joy
even in the book it was pretty much star wars if it took place in a lord of the rings type fantasy setting, (with a surprisingly well thought out and complex magic system) and a lot more focus on dragons.
I can't believe this movie is one of my key childhood memories that contributed to my love of fantasy and magic, along with: 1.) Final fantasy 4 2.) Final fantasy tactics 3.) Spectrobes 4.) Rave master 5.) Phantom Dust 6.) Ninety-Nine Nights 7.) Zatch Bell 8.) Calvin and Hobbes
In the book, Eragon grew up hearing the stories of the dragon riders, and he loved them. In fact, Brom was essentially the village storyteller, and every year they had a festival and Brom would tell the stories. It was only in the last one before Eragon's adventure kicks off that he tells the one of Galbatorix's betrayal. Because if any loyalist heard the story and told one of Galbie's enforcers, Brom would be arrested and executed. Or rather, Eragon's uncle had heard the story a long time ago, because Brom very rarely told it out of fear of reprisal.
Galvatron definitely never called it a stone in the books. I'm pretty sure we don't actually meet him until the last one, but we do hear about him as often as you'd expect, so it's not a surprise that they put him in the movie. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Eragon himself *was* convinced that it was a stone for a while, but it kept changing and iirc he decided at some point that it was definitely an egg of something. Also, there's no stupid shit about the dragon flying off and coming back fully grown. She grows over time like you'd expect in the books. It's been like a decade since I've read them. I don't know, man. It's hard to comment, as an adult, on a YA series that I read as a teenager. But I did watch this movie after reading the book, and I remember being very disappointed. edit: I distinctly remember that the beginning of book three was this crazy revenge mission against the creatures that Durza summoned, and that was pretty cool. There's this shit about Eragon being close to death so he starts absorbing the life force from grass to sustain his life but he's like a super vegan* so then he looks back at all the grass he killed and feels guilty about it. *He becomes a super vegan because of something to do with the elves during book two, I think? Like he basically learns how to plug his consciousness into nature and after that he stops eating meat. It's honestly pretty cool conceptually, but the grass thing still makes me laugh.
Yes, after he felt the daily life of all animals and plants around him, he wanted to eat meat, thought how the rabbit felt and threw up. After the escaping you described he was disgusted bc he lost control and there would not grow anything for a while, but to go on he needet to eat meat again. He found, that Saphira would scold him, if he died bc of hunger, that the rabbit is fighting for life like he himself and if he could live without eating them it's all good, but if he's in a distress, he has to put himself above the rabbit (and the grass 🤭) Later he convinces himself, he hasn't to be this dogmatic and can eat meat if "it would be rude" not to 😅 Interestingly he and the elves never say to other people to not eat meat, althoug the elves hold themselves higher than other races 🤔 And his journey from the peasant with "why the Hell would you not eat meat?!!" over "shit, poor rabbits :'(" to "I liked how it tasted..." is kinda funny.
@SaridenChan There was a scene in the third book where Eragon is travelling with the Urgal chief, and they're having a giant feast of animal meat. I remember thinking "what happened to his pledge to only eat meat in moderation?". I think the author forgot XD
@@SaridenChan i think elves dont tell others to go vegan bcz they have respect for other cultures and also dont expect other races to understand the connection with nature all of them felt during their training.
Did Durza or Gabapentin's other minions know what it was? I admit I haven't read The Inheritance Cycle myself, but I could potentially believe that he would hide its true nature as a dragon egg so as to not give any minions with will or power of their own any ideas of overthrowing him.
I actually never finished reading the books but, with the conscription plot the producers just threw away half of the secondary plots that could be used if the movie ever got a sequel. Looks like they realized it was not going to happen right during script writing.
Also killing the butcher in the movie (yes seems like trivial but is actually important, hecking butterfly effect), canceled out the whole sideplot with his cousin, leading him to be an actuall war hero
I hated the killing of the Ra'zacs in the movie. One of the strangely interesting aspects of the books is that the main character has very selfish interests, and one of his prime motivations for even helping the rebellion is soothing his raging revenge-boner by killing the Ra'zacs. Removing them takes away a fair bit of his character motivation and makes him even more of a generic good hero guy.
Wow - I just noticed that all shots of Eragon and Jeremy Irons from 16:26 to 16:40 are greenscreened, which is amazing since it's doing nothing but depicting them against a forest backdrop.. I suppose that shows the film's overall lack of effort right there
With names like "Jeremy Irons", "John Malkovich", "Robert Carlyle", "Djimon Hounsou", and "Rachel Weisz", you'd THINK that it wouldn't be THAT $HITTY!!! 😳 Great video btw (as always)!! Thanks for making me laugh my ass off!!🤣👍
Saphira is like 16 years younger than Eragon, yet manages to get laid 100 times faster. Her dating game is so much stronger than his it's actually sad.
@@Stivonim the last in alagaesia, at least. But Eragon is also the only male dragonrider alive who isn't a major edgelord with lots of trauma issues to work through. Plus he's the second coming of the original Eragon, as well as the hero who saved everyone and defeated Galbatorix. And even the age difference is similar. Firnen literally just hit dragon puberty when he met Saphira, and she's multiple times his age and has already accumulated greater knowledge than normal for her age, studying the dragon ways under Glaedr and experiencing the memories of ancient dragons through their eldunari. She is basically the arya to Firnen's Eragon, the only real difference being that Arya's friendzoning powers are a lot stronger than Eragon's flirting.
@@runtergerutscht4401 Saphira is way more stressed to have a partner tough, Arya doesn't care about finding an husband because it's not like she is the last of her kind, the fact that she is 100 years old isn't helping Eragon either.
Ahhh I loved Eragon as a child. I guess it does make sense seeing where the source material came from. Loll. I love your reviews though so I can't wait to watch this after I get something to eat.
02:19 - Durza should have replied with "OK" and killed Galvatronatrix or whatever John Malkovich is. What sort of evil overlord tells his henchman to "do not prolong my suffering"? :D
I was a massive fan of these books in middle school. This movie was the first time I realized that a "movie deal" was something to fear, and I'm still not quite over it.
Man, I remember finishing the book series when I was younger, and I really loved it. The best part about the books was the relationship dynamics for me and how real a lot of the interactions felt. Since I was young too, I didn't notice some of the lesser qualities. Then I found out a movie had been made and it was so infuriating bad. This will always be up there for me, along with last air bender as worst adaptation fuck ups. They could have probably had a long, profitable movie franchise if they just stayed faithful and allowed longer run time for more nuance and development. As is usually the case with most these terrible flops.
Your misnaming of Galbatorix is hilarious. XD I have fond memories of listening to the soundtrack for this movie as a kid and I still occasionally listen to some tracks. I also remember going to the Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History in 2007 and seeing a dragon section that had Eragon behind-the-scenes footage of the character-designing of Saphira. I never read the books, but I remember my sister read a couple of them but lost interest during the third book Brisingr. I heard a lot of mixed thoughts about the books. I know they are seen as laughably bad to plenty of people, while the series has a pretty decent fanbase, and I heard a lot of negativity about the movie. I remember seeing the movie on television as a kid, and seeing the poster in places and wondering if it was a movie adaptation of Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. XD I recently saw Ed Speleers in Outlander as the villain after Black-Jack Randall, Stephen Bonnet, and he was great in that role. I'm so glad that starring in this movie didn't diminish his career or any of the other actors and actresses. Great review, my dude. Keep up the good work!
@@alexandergreene461 The entire series by Robin Hobb that starts with the Farseer Trilogy all leads up to dragons coming back into that world. It's one of the best examples of world-building and has amazing setups that are very satisfying - but also it's emotionally draining to read. Highly recommended.
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Dude I remember reading this book and looking forward to them making the film. Me and my family went and saw the film in theaters and instantly regretted it. Nothing like we'd hoped for unlike your video. Thanks for the chill monday morning vibes.
You made me lol with that "My mother left me after I confesed to her I'm adopted" xD
Pathetic how legal fair use doesn't matter to RUclips. Creators ought to be able to sue over it.
Fox had to really make sure you didn't besmirch this high quality franchise. There are 9 sequels planned.
Have you watched Velocipastor or Shark Exorcist? XD
I still laugh at the fact that they were so lazy they didn't even bother to give Arya pointed ears. She's an elf lmao
wasn't in the budget XD
But ye, why the fuck wouldn't you give arya's pointy ear. I was even telling to myself how were they supposed to bring Eragon to the cpaital of the Elves if they all have round ears ? He is supposed to become an hybrid ! HELLO ??? Have you even read the fucking books before doing this film ???
Right. The people in charge of adapting this movie really botched that. I had to remind everyone in the room she was an elf. Like possum said this book was longer than fellowship of the ring but the movie was half as long. So much ruined that it would be impossible to make sequels that make any sense
As somebody who watched the film and never read the book, I was surprised when I found out she was supposed to be an elf.
For some reason I read Anya instead of Arya
Bruh, how do you mess up so badly
Saphira carrying two extra passengers: "I can't fly! The weight is too much!"
Saphira wearing a two ton suit of plate armor: "Let's fly, baby!"
in the books the final battle was like almost a year later
@@kiwidemon8555 Which is part of why the movie sucks. They had an explanation and chose not to use it, to the film's detriment.
It is almost Disney-level story-assassination. It’s like the people who made the movie literally did not care one bit.
@@HumanPerson_final Oof, I wouldn't go that far! Bit harsh, innit?
@@HumanPerson_final Yeah not Disney-level that´s to far! smh where is your humanity?
"Why doesn't Eragon know about shades/urgals/etc."
In the book he does, it's just exposited to the reader via narration. Honestly it would have been smarter if, instead of Brom explaining to him, they had him explain these things to Saphira, the dragon whose not even a year old.
To be fair, Brom was an old storyteller that probably didn’t have many opportunities to talk about the magic of the world without getting caught, so I can’t blame him for blurting everything out
That's actually a really cool story idea
It would be a thing people know about, but not something they k n o w about.
Like many people in the real world know what a lithium battery is, but not why they tend to explode.
and when it was exposited, it was much better done
Eragon is typical young character for the young audience to associate themselves with. That's why all the explanations need to be given to him. So even if the plot doesn't make sence, the filmmakers just went with it. And that's why the more logical option was cast aside, because they thought that the young people wouldn't associate themselves with Saphira. It didn't save the bad adaptation, of course.
"Eregon just smiles in delight at the horrifying sight of this thing eating a rat whole"
Dude's a farmer. He's probably seen cats maul rats before. I'd imagine he's pretty used to seeing pest animals get eaten by things by this point. If I was Eregon I wouldn't be thinking "Oh god, that's freaky", I'd be thinking "Cool, this should get rid of that pest problem!"
Tbh if you are a medieval farmer it’s likely you have already tried rat yourself
@@davidesguario2151 Yeah, I mean meat is meat, after all. Money can be scarce and protein is good.
@@dracocrusherdon’t know about rats, but from what I am told dormouse is pretty tasty
@@dracocrusher germ theory ain't even a thing how could a rat be bad in 1422
@@igooog Because they eat your grain and they're so gross that you can't even sell them?
Honestly all I remember of the movie is constantly asking myself "where's his brother?" where's the twins?" "where's him finding the entire village of murdered people?"
It's like cutting out the INN scene where they meet Aragon in LOTR, Completely removing Boromir from existing, and no Mary/Pippin'.
What??? His brother is in the film
So like... Rring a power? 😂
@@roronoalaw7772 yeah, but he's not doing anything
@@shalonsmith1337 exactly, what an awful show Rings of Power was
I mean arya leaves without Eragon. And she wasn’t even supposed to leave until the sequel.
Elva and solembum we’re missing.
All the fantasy races were removed or altered beyond recognition
Every time Possum calls Galbatorix something else
Gal Gadot 2:05
Gallbladder 3:09
Gallstones 3:26
Gorgonzola 3:48
Gazorpazorpfield 5:25
Goo Goo G'Joob 6:07
Gonzo 6:47
Garbage 6:55
Gastritis 7:46
Gumbi 11:27
Gullah Gullah 15:45
Glueman 20:13
Gooey Louie 20:49
Gandalf the Bald 20:58
Galba-Torx Wrench 25:51
Gabba Gabba 32:11
Galba- Trix Rabbit 32:59
Glam Rock 34:58
Gumball 36:56
Garfunkel 41:32
Grunkle Stan 43:13
Gunther 43:38
Galvatron 44:34
Glans Penis 44:43
I appreciate this list
I don't know why, but Grunkle Stan is the one that made me laugh the most
I was waiting the whole review for Galvatron.
Durza and Garfunkle is by far my favorite.
Continuing that fine Slap Bulkhead tradition =D
To the question of whether Saphira can hear Eragon’s “fantasies” … yes, yes she can. The reverse is also true, which lead to some interesting situations in the books😂
That feels quite invasive from both aspects.
@@Mate397 it is. They both learn how to cut off the connection, but before that It caused some friction
Don't forget when Saphria tapped Roran's mind while he was plowing his wife. That still makes me laugh.
It's been over a decade since I read them but I just remembered that XD As for him having fantasies about Saphira, I also remember the first time he rode on her, her scales scraped off all the skin on the inside of his legs... so that probably answers that.
@@Foreseer117 I'm just starting my re read of the books which one is that again
The biggest disappointment for me was Tronjheim. In the books it's an enormous stone city in the middle of a kilometre tall caldera (I think there's a mention of stalactites, hundreds of metres long so you can imagine the size of the cave). Not to mention the huge crystal in the middle.
Then you see it in the movie and it's just a bunch of tents and huts in a tiny valley... Wtf
honestly, I'm very disapointed about it too. That was supposed to be why the Dwarves were such incredible architects, the damn cristal was supposed to be their beloved symbol of history left from the dragon riders, they are supposed to have dragon chambers in there !!!! Also, wtf is this dragon armour XD the head piece didn't suit the dragon but they didn't change it XDDD, also it's supposed to an old dragon armour a bit tailored to fit Saphira cause it's too big for her, not one made over night XD
You would have known if instead of doing a magical ellipse of Saphira growing up WE HAD HER GROWING UP NATURALLY.
Also, that's one of the things that made Galbatorix so evil : Thorn, the red dragon hatched for Murthag and Galbatorix's own black dragon were MAGICALLY FORCED TO GROWN, MAKING THEM HURT, AND GROW TOO FAST FOR THEIR MENTAL !!!
READ THE DAMN BOOKS BEFORE MAKING A FILM GUYS
The book: A mountain. Inside a mountain.
The movie: Yeah, a cave.
the mountains in the book: 10 miles high, the volcano with the 1 mile Tronjheim even higher.
the mountains in the film: yeah some 20 meter hills and a giant Rock which is maybe 500m high. And Tronjheim is just some stones in a cave
Are books any good?
@@realdragon my favourite fantasy series by far
I was into fantasy as a kid but my family wasn't. I convinced them to watch this movie with me thinking that since the book was good the movie would be too, and they would finally be brought to understand why I loved fantasy so much. I was mortified to find that even my middle school self could tell that the movie was terrible. They made fun of me and, needless to say, I pretty much never tried to get them to understand my interests again. So ya. Thanks a bunch Stefen Fangmeier
That's depressing.
Did they at least apologize later?
Lol
That must've been awful :c
I’m into fantasy, my mom is more into sci-fi since she grew up with Star Trek, and my dad is a mix of both (he’s read the Silmarillion and how he keeps all that information in his brain I have no idea lol). I’m in the middle of writing my own fantasy world and my mom is my editor. I admit I have to add context and answer questions she asks because she admits fantasy isn’t her thing so all the extra details sometimes get lost or she forgets things, doesn’t help that I write the chapters in groups of 3 so it’s like 3-4 weeks before she reads another chunk of the story. Meanwhile my dad really enjoyed the book since lore and fantasy is more his thing which really makes me happy 😁
I’m sorry that kind of experience happened to you all because you were just trying to express your interests. We really have proven that *good* book adaptations are once in a blue moon nowadays, and when the stinky adaptations happen to our favorite stories it always stings. My family may not all be into fantasy, but we’re all nerds so it evens out; being made fun of for a reason that isn’t your fault and you could never predict is always depressing 😞
That’s sad.
18:07 Fun fact: That dingy village made out of sticks on a lake is a stand-in for _the mercantile core of Alagaesia._ They spend time in civilization in the books, believe it or not.
reminds me of a crannog, scottish and irish neolithic and bronze age huts.
"My mother left when I admitted I was adopted" is probably the best throw-away joke the Possum has ever made. ALSO - I remember seeing this at my buddy's place and being shocked that he was too dumb to see it was a ripoff of Star Wars. That was a sad day.
it's a good trilogy, ripoff or not
@@antjesus5427 You mean the books? I found the movie abysmal.
@@TheWarmotor Yeah, the books were pretty good
@@antjesus5427 The books WERE going to be a trilogy, but he wrote four so it is technically the "Inheritance Cycle". I suppose the best word would be "saga" or something like that.
@@whattheduece1225 Forgot about that one. Point is, good books, movie bad
They found a way to make a movie featuring a Dragon forgettable. That's a dubious achievement IMO
Edit: OK, didn't expect this comment to blow up, but I still stand of what I said, even in very bad fantasy movie that has dragons at least have some scene I can remember. Didn't happened with Eragon for me
I’ve seen movies that featured CGI dragons and they too are forgettable.
I hate how much this statement resonates with me
It features multiple dragons. That's how bad this thing is
@@theblackswordsman5039 the fact that you mentioned them at all shows you didn't forget about them
And it’s one of the better depictions of a dragon with humanity in modern fiction. Normally they are Smaug, a giant lizard monster, or whatever the hell dragons are in Skyrim.
Holy shit, this movie had a bigger budget than LOTR??? Mind blown. Some of that had to have gone to the producer's pockets
Not really , The 3 LotR movies were filmed at the same time for about $281 milion. They were finished and released over 3 years and the production costs split up between them. ( I presume for tax purposes).
LotR saved alot of money by filming all three at the same time. IMO, if they were made Individually and in sequence, each one would have cost more than this movie.
Chalk it up to Peter Jackosn , et al, haviing a real good idea on how to save production costs by doing so.
That doesn't excuse the fact this movie doesn't look like a $100 million movie, but ILM(industrail light and Magic) CGI ain't cheap. Perhaps the production company did overcharge on sets , becuase they look like chit , as noted.
With LotR , Jackson and New-line, made/used their own in-house speciall effects company(Weta Inc), which obviously saved money too.
Also note, New Zealand gave the LotR production , some hellified tax breaks , which saved that part of production costs too, as well.
LotR is a great study of the economics of making big budget films, on the cheap.
Now where is gets kinda weird, is the kid who wrote these Eragon books, probably got more money for his book/film rights,
than JJR Tolkien did when he sold LotR to United Artists around 1970. Inflation adjusted, of course .LOL
Excuse the long reply
@@chrisperrien7055 Long reply excused. Thanks for the interesting info.
@@chrisperrien7055 the more I know
@@chrisperrien7055 And your point is? So 300m was spent making ~10 hours of amazing film. They spent 100m to make 1.5 hours of crap here.
@@SolarisKane sadly yes
21:57 "Does Eragon even know how to read" In the book he literally doesn't at that point of the story, but he still knows more of the world than in the movie lol
In the books it's actually a pretty important plot point when Brom teaches Eragon how to read, because it allows them to track down the base of the ra'zac.
In the book, the whole „the stone is an egg?” Thing was much better written, with the fact that dragons died like… 150 years ago?
So when eragon found the egg he thought that this was a gemstone, of an royal, and tried to sell it to a jeweler.
This also explains the smoothness of the stone, because he thought it was polished.
He tried to sell it to the butcher for meat, which the butcher rejects because of his superstition towards the spine. The smith comes in and buys the meat in exchange for Eragons help later.
@@ShadowGaming-ft4fh yes, this came before the jeweler.
Sloan is an a hole. Yet I love what Paolini did with him on the end.
It was also described as looking like a giant gem in the book. Where the name Saphira came from.
Saphira was named after Broms dragon Saphira. 😊
@@ironrav3nn But didn't eragon come up with the name? I might be misremembering
Brom's death in the book actually happens way before Eragon is brought to the prison. He dies after several days of suffering from wounds that were inflicted by the Razaac during a nighttime ambush, and in the intervening time Murhtag joins the party. It's actually Murhtag who goes to rescue Eragon when he's captured by Urgals and is hauled off to the dungeon.
So in a story was already very derivative of Star Wars, they changed one of the biggest plot points to be EVEN MORE like Star Wars.
Were they trying to get a lawsuit?
Going back, I realize that Eragon's prison time was actually epic from a retelling point.
He gets captured and imprisoned in a prison he wanted to get into to rescue the girl from his dreams.
He meets Durza and, when Durza asks him who he is he basically replies with "I'm your worst nightmare", a prophecy he would later fulfill by earning the title shadeslayer, he effectively bamboozles Galbatorix's right hand man, resists the drugging and escapes on his own, rescuing the princess and completely disappointing his best buddy/half-brother who just came to save him.
I know that the dragons were helping him, but from a regular human's perspective, Eragon must be the most badass dude ever just for this.
@EightFootSativa Also, Eragon get dunked on, has his sword stolen, and still suffers like hell because of the huge scar on his back from the Shade, loses his fully charged OP soul belt in third book
Ye, tough times
@EightFootSativa
My single biggest problem with the novels was the revelation of Brom as Eragon's father. I always felt that the story worked best if both were the full sons of Morzan.
My other great novel problem, though there was a set up for it, was the freeing of Murtagh through his relationship with Nasuada changing his real name. I always felt that this development was forced because he wanted a redemption arc for him. I have long believed this was possible through other means.
@@jayt9608So, it should just have been Star Wars? 😂
I love how done Possum is with everything this episode.
“Oh no, a dragon!- let’s just get to the video.”
“I’m gunna read your ten dollar patroons.” “Everyone is going to skip this part.”
Hard to tell if genuine or act with how poor the audio quality got.
I do miss his skits sometimes. I know they’re a little bit of a faux pas in the RUclips critic landscape now thanks to Channel Awesome but the skits in his Dumbo and Amazing Bulk reviews were genuinely the best part and really added to the overall experience.
@@LyleVSXyle Skits to get people to like you: Loser
Skits without caring whether people think you're a loser: Chad
He's so fed up with life.I bet he begs for a heart attack to end it all.
Ironically he dislikes meta humor but he keeps doing this "okay let's do this quick" meta humor. lol
I think Jeremy Irons was a fan of the books. I always feel bad for an actor who joins a project out of passion just to be contractually forced to helplessly ruin an IP.
That sounds familiar somehow...
@@TheWolfgangGrimmer Henry Cavill
@@Eddie-yv1ix That's what I was implying yes.
@@TheWolfgangGrimmer John Boyega
Fuck that a-hole Henry cavill. He never was Geralt to begin with, I don't care how much of a fanboy he claims to be of the books!
Before we had the terrible Avatar TLA show to live action movie adaptation, I had this Eragon book to movie adaptation. Avatar didn't hurt as much as Eragon did. I remember my dad took me to see this movie in the theater because I had read the books multiple times, and angrily walking out of the theater and my dad asked me what was wrong with the movie. I told him that the only similarities between that movie and my beloved books were the title and the names of the characters.
I mean, at least the ATLA adaptation has some funny-bad moments, like the earthbending scene.
The only funny thing about this movie is that they went out of their way to hire John Malkovich to play a character that shouldn’t be seen until the end of the series.
@Ni-dk7ni so there there is no adaptation?
In the book, it is explained that Saphira didn't try to help Uncle Garrow because she was young and afraid. She was terrified of the idea of Eragon dying, so she just GRABS him and flies off. It's a few days before she lets him go back, AFTER their first flight strips the skin off his legs.
And on why a dragon and rider die together is due to the psychic link between them. You feel a part of yourself die, and it usually drives the other insane and makes them suicidal to join your heart-partner in the afterlife.
Interestingly, the telepathic bond between sapphira and eragon is commented on. They block each other out unless they deliberately call to each other. kinda like a psychic phone call they can ignore if they want too. at least until they meet another dragon rider whose supposed to teach them more about the whole dragon rider thing. then they are forced to have an open line between them 24/7 and they aren't allowed any privacy, lol.
Also, the Dragon and riders weren't bond to each other, so that if the dragon dies the rider dies. It was a plot point in the books that dragons lost riders and vise versa all the time. It left mental scars and sometimes the survivor would commit suicide rather then be without their partner, but otherwise, the surviving partner didn't keel over. they could even re-bond on occasion with another dragon.
Hell, that's Galbatorix's whole schtick.
His dragon died and he went mad with grief and stole another dragon egg.
It's a MAJOR plotpoint, that proves the movie producers had no idea what they were doing.
@@video-luver769 fact that they just didn't read the books XD And honestly, the huge emtional plot at end was supposed to be about Eragon winning 1v1 against the Shade and his men getting scared for life and Saphira breaking the Dwarf's star cristal breathing fire for the first time to save, not wathever healing spell bullshit this is XD
Honestly, he could heal way before (hell, Saphira had torn wings because of arrows when they fled with Arya and Murthag and he managed to heal everything)
And ye, I think about the shadow dragon thing the Shade rode and... "Oh guys, we need them to have a dragon fight ! - But Galbatorix isn't supposed to act in the first film sir - But they have an evil black dragon right ? Give it to the Shade guy - That's supposed Galbatorix's dragon sir - ADD A BLACK EVIL SHADY DRAGON - ..."
Yeah... They wanted epic fantasy , well that's just bad, shoud've gone for the book XD
If I'm not mistaken, it is specifically said that a Rider may survive the death of their dragon, but that there is no known example of the reverse.
Hence why it is a huge point in the books that Eragon *must* be captured and coerced in order for Saphira, the last female dragon in existence (I mean, that's later in the books, but still.), to mate with Shruikan, for Galbatorix to get his own dragon rider army.
@@NWolfsson Shruikan himself is a known example, Galbatorix killed his rider and rapemagiced Shruikan to serve him. I always understood the relationship as: "Riders and dragons both suffer immensely if their so dies, but riders had a time in their life before they knew their dragon, while dragons never were without their rider. So for dragons the mental impact is even more devastating and they usually go kamikaze or die from depression-related actions, even more so than the humans."
@@NWolfsson Glaedr survived even after Oromis died in Brisingr, although he was killed shortly after by Thorn and Murtagh.
In the novel Saphria killing the Razaak is out of the question. She nowhere near big or strong enough and she is immensely terrified of them, calling 'egg smashers' and 'oathbreakers'. She prioritizes Eragon's safety over Garrow because he is her rider and that link in sacred. She feels guilt over Garrow but ultimately she saved Eragon.
Ok calm down
@@aliway4136 Hey what can I say, I remember the books very well.
@@alexandergreene461 Ya, the movie botched a lot of the growth involved with Saphria and its really annoying. The size she was in the movie she could have easily shredded the Razaak.
@@alexandergreene461 sapphira isn't the size of an eagle in those parts, she's big enough for Eragon to ride her. She just flies high enough that she can be mistake for an eagle on the ground
The Razaak are also way more powerful in the books. They were basically Naz'gul.
Hey, remember when John Boyega (Finn) told Poe that Stormtroopers in the 1st. Order are taken as kids and indoctrinated to serve?
And five minutes later he shoots them galore and cheers about it.
And many people somehow claim that Poe and Finn escaping the star destroyer is the best scene in TFA.
Apparently, if you'd read the book(or comic, don't remember) you'd know that other troopers threated Finn poorly so it's okay for him to shoot them all. Seriously - it's one of of the arguments I read about the little traitor.
@@JohnDoe-cz5yz Well, I don't want to read a comic to understand the movie. Especially with a movie that doesn't make sense in the first place. All I heard through osmosis is that he was a janitor because he used to fuck up but was the top of his class which sounds like an oxymoron.
@@simonrobillard Well, the best scene was when Cpt. Phasma teleported into the shuttle to scold Finn for taking off his helmet. What an awesome power from a dollar store toy.
Yeah, people tend to forget that part about The Force Awakens. Fuck that movie.
My main problem with the Ra'zac is that, in the books they're the humanoid larval form of a larger, more dangerous creature similar to dragons, called Lethrblaka (Leather-blah-kuh). In the movie... they're a feat of necromancy? Something that's not even possible in the books.
My main problem with the Ra'zac is that, in the books, they're alive until the start of the last book. In the movie they killed them.
@@Galiant2010 Third book. The original Ra'zac from the first book were killed at the start of the third book. And then in the fourth book a couple of Ra'zac eggs were introduced, before being swiftly dealt with.
@@timothymarzelli3874 Ah, it's been at least 10 years since I read the books lol. I remembered it was the yellow one, Brisingr, but my memory was thinking that was the last one.
But the point still stands. They killed them off in this movie for no reason when they still had an important role in future story beats.
Not to mention they both have more dialog and outlast Durza, they are actually larger villains than he is. Can you imagine Saruman having no dialog and Gandalf just casually killing him in Fellowship of the Ring film? That's pretty much the treatment these two antagonists got in this film.
@@UndyingNephalim Durza was more dangerous. Eragon got lucky. The Ra'zac were deadly because they had innate anti detection by magic.
Can we talk about Saphira growing up magically ? I've not seen a comment about it yet.
I mean, THAT'S PART OF WHAT MAKES GALBATORIX EVIL !
Remember Thorn, Murthag's red Dragon ? Or Galbatorix's Black Dragon, Shruikan ? OR JUST HOW THEY WERE MAGICALLY FORCED TO GROW UP FUCKING THEM UP PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY ?
How could they have a sequel to fucking up so badly ? Part of the fucking plot is : "Galbatorix is so evil, he even goes to torture Dragons, and makes them grow insanely fast which makes them hurt so much they can go insane. Yeah, their mental doesn't follow their body so they are basically babies which immense strengh, adding up trauma of suffering."
Ye, they haven't read the books did they ? No they didn't...
Pretty sure they heard somewhere dragons COULD grow up super fast, and thought it was standard practice
Wait but if dragons are born with the knowledge of all the dragons that came before them. Why would they need to regularly grow up?
@@Davinhomx Because it's one thing to have knowledge of something, and quite another to have experience in it, like in the Novels when Saphira first learns to use fire, which an instinctive trait of her race she described it as "Imagine every time you raised your hand lightning struck" She had to learn through her own development how to not accidentally burn anyone or anything near her every time she breathed out
'Was this in the book?' Yes, in the book everyone thinks the egg is a stone because it's smaller and looks crystalline with white quartz veining. Galbatorix isn't in the first book so he never calls it a stone. The whole stone thing makes more sense in the book.
Edit: On the issues of The Legend of the Riders and Durza. Galbatorix outlawed retellings of the Legend so some people have vague knowledge of the Riders and Brom's story is meant to be a complete picture of what happened, even if it means he's breaking the law. With Durza, Shades aren't common knowledge, as they are blasphemous creations that only serve their own dark self-interests. They are also exceedingly rare. The Urgals however, Eragon already knew about as in the book there's one's horns mounted in the village tavern. The Urgal/Galbatorix alliance is secret, only the upper most military officers know and that hurt Galbatorix in the long run as the Urgals ditch him for the Varden after they see he just sees them as pawns.
Eragon, in fact, doesn't know how to read. It's something he's embarrassed about and he learns to in Drasliona iirc.
Brom told Saphria he was a rider but swore her to secrecy in Elvish, which is a language that binds one and cannot lie. This happened after Eragon used magic the first time and was out for 3 days.
The diamond tomb is what gets referred to as a Dragon Miracle. Saphria does this a few times and its because dragon have the deepest connection to the flow of magic that they can perform feats that can only be described as miracles.
Also, IIRC, Brom gets mortally injured not by Durza, but by the Ra’zac as he and Eragon fled from Dras’leona, with Murtagh being the one who rescues Eragon from the prison in Gil’ead (as Durza didn’t have his own villainous lair in the book) after Murtagh’s scouting attempt of the garrison there goes awry, so this movie takes so many liberties with the source material that it’s an insult to anyone who’s read the books.
@@Jolis_Parsec Ya, Brom dies protecting Eragon and Murtagh takes over Brom's position for a bit of the novel, even sparing with Eragon. The movie is downright insulting and the stuff they cut irks me greatly.
HA! Nerd.
But seriously that is surprisingly in depth and well thought out for a book from what's basically Star Wars with dragons written by a 15 year old.
So, what you're saying is, this movie would be far better if it followed the book more closely?
@@GenericProtagonist118 he even sets things up that pay off books later, eragon gets severely and magically injured by Durza in the final confrontation, these injuries plague Eragon for all of Eldest and a portion of Brisingr. That injury sets the stage for most of Eragons character development, which is then excluded completely from the movie, hindering the story. I'm glad I watched the movie as a kid before reading the books
The dragon was barely flying with 3 people on her back, but suddenly she can wear armor and carry her rider who is also in armor and can fly and fight?
You obviously don't play video games. Human bodies weigh MUCH more than armor, you see; that's why you can carry twenty separate sets of full plate armor in your backpack, but can't grab your nearest buddy and sling them out of the way of the oncoming monster attack.
Silly.
This is why you never skip wing day.
I'd say that's not that far fetched. Don't remember exactly how long passed between the escape from Gilead and the final battle but she grows really fast and is probably a bit stronger by then. She also got shot several times by arrows while escaping. I expect it also has a lot to do with weight distribution. Armor is designed to be comfortable. It's a lot easier to move around in a 40 pound suit of armor than with a 40 pound backpack on your back
@RockyRoad Magic This is correct. Armor is designed to be easy to wear, otherwise no one would wear it.
@@sirpepeofhousekek6741 Armor is designed to stop pointy things from entering your body, not to be comfortable.
As a fan of the books (flawed or not), It was really an experience to watch this movie, it gave me the feeling, that they didn't even make the movie based on the books, but rather someone just asked "What Eragon is about? Tell me in 10 short sentences" and then someone did and they made the movie based on those 10 sentences.
Fun Fact: Arya is an ELF... And Durza is not a wizard, he's a shade. A mage with the power to control spirits (not dead people, nature spirits), but when the spirits overcome their master they take possession of him and a shade is born. A powerful collective, almost immortal, can cast magic and is basically unstoppable except by elves who are almost as powerful, or Dragonriders (that don't exist anymore). Durza is also the one who helped Galbatorix to beat the Riders, and only served him once Galbatorix became more powerful than anyone in existence (I won't spoil why, but it's BRILLIANT).
As a teen that read and loved the books, this movie was a cruel slap in the nuts. Then the video game was 12 consecutive kicks to the jewels, cause it was based on the movie.
Funny thing, I hadn't heard about Eragon when the movie came out, my friends and I (ten years old at the time) just thought, "Hey movie with dragon, let's watch". Reading the book AFTER seeing the awful adaptation is an interesting experience.
They had so much potential to work with. It really could have turned into a wonderful series.
But instead we got....this.
I remember watching this excitedly in the theaters only to be infuriated
Whats even more infuriating is that messing with the source material for the directors own ‘vision’ is now encouraged to ruin franchises like with rings of power and she hulk.
@@firenze6478 Oh, screwing with the source material has been a problem for a LONG time in Hollywood; they just happened to find new ways and excuses to do it and defend it afterwards.
+@@mattdamutt5681 But we all know the truth. They aren't defending shit
I watched the movie twice. First time I had no idea about the books but thought the movie looked interesting. It was incredibly stupid and I promptly forgot about it.
The second time was after I read the books. The books are really well done, with the author actually describing the opening scene as if it were a movie. Given that the author's immature writing was perfectly suited for making into a movie, I was really excited when I found out there was an Eragon movie!
I think it was about half way through that I realized I'd already seen this shit before and that it was nearly impossible to align this nonsense with the book. Also, HOW did they screw up the opening scene? HOOOOOOWWWWWW?!?!!?
I watched it and barely remember a thing
And to be fair to the books, which were admittedly written by a teenager, most of the weird/bad things about the movie are different from the book seemingly without reason
Being written by a teenager explains why he stole most of the plot from Star Wars.
@@SwiftNimblefoot if you can get past that, the books are honestly pretty good. The movie really does reduce the plot to a point where the flaws are all that's left
Aye, almost all plotchanges make it more of a Star Wars Copy (for example: the little "seedy town" is one of the most heavily fortified and important trading hubs of the empire and their only contact with the enemy is talking to some guards while tricking them to get inside the city archives)
@@oromis900 reading the book while squinting you could see the rough format, kind of the typical dead uncle + evil empire + magic chosen one thing, but the movie is almost a shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope
@@Cepaceous definitely, although I would say you could try and excuse most of it as copying common fantasy tropes. As I said, the movie is more of a star wars copy than the book, but the book is still somewhat...
Let us call it inspired by New Hope.
It's always weird when they change things in movies based on books. Like the egg looking like an egg when in the books I believe it is specifically stated that Dragon eggs look like stones so it makes sense no one knows what it is.
Well they do need to change some things, especially condensing/cutting scenes and often reworking dialogue and character moments because we don't get narration anymore.
But...yeah they sometimes change baffling things they didn't really need to, and that doesn't really seem to improve anything.
I don't know why.
But a stone wouldn't look cool in the trailer.
In the book, it specifically like like a some type of valuable stone given it's color and odd shape, and he tried selling it to merchants
@@SebasTian58323and tried cracking it open on multiple occasions if I remember right
@@SebasTian58323the way I always imagined it when it was reading was that it was egg shaped but more gem like, sort of like if a sapphire gem was cut into a vague shape of an egg (since it was supposed to be blueish)
they changed stuff, even something as simple as eragons brother getting conscripted, he wasn't conscripted as the reason for leaving the village, he was going into an apprenticeship under a blacksmith that was situated in a city.
Thank you for giving a mostly unbiased view of this movie. I'm really happy to know it sucked to people who DIDN'T read the book, too.
Also, the town of huts on stilts was supposed to be a whole city, stone and nice houses with a docks district built entirely on the water.
The city was called Tierm, and a lot of important things happened there in the building, like Eragon learning how to read, meeting Jeod, and meeting Angela the Herbalist, who both become important characters later on
Also, Saphira figures out that Brom was a dragon rider a LONG time before this. At a certain point he pats her on the nose, which lets her sense his rider's mark, but he tells her not to say anything to Eragon.
She knows from her first meeting, after he spoke with her through his thoughts to not interfere, so he can talk to Eragon. He revealed it to her, so she trusts him.
@@SaridenChan It's been a LOOOONG time since I read the novels. Btw if you haven't, you should read The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm: Tales from Alagaesia.
"He tries to milk his baby dragon" I've never heard that one before. I've heard of spanking your monkey and tugging the rope before but never anything about milking a baby dragon
A phrase I will henceforth be using with pride.
Flogging the dolphin?
It's ok as long as your baby dragon doesn't breathe fire, if that happens you need to see a specialist
One aspect I liked about Eragon, the book, was the magic system: it was explored in depth, and was an interesting process of understanding how its language worked, and using it in an efficient way. The book is not a masterpiece, but I liked the descriptions and the characters were decent for being so archetypical...
Now, the movie was unable to keep any of that, and felt rushed in almost all spots, with the "magical assassins" not being killable, pretty much.
I'd agree, but even his explanations leave one feeling like they need explanations. Why is a language magic, and what makes it magical? Where does magic originate? Who determines everyone's true name? Why does magic just draw upon fatigue points? Why are crystals nothing more than magic batteries? Why do dragons develop magic bonds with people, why can't they just operate solo? Where do dragons originate?
While the series is impressive in regards to it being the creation of a 15-year-old, one can't forget that it's the creation of a 15-year-old, so there's a ton of missing stuff because it takes time for a person to mature, absorb necessary ideas, and mull them over.
I wonder how Paolini would write the series starting now rather than when he was 15.
@@mallios13 Supposedly, he isnt done with it. I recall reading somewhere that he intends to go back to the Eragon series to wrap up some loose ends in the future, but hes currently working on other projects. How likely that is, I dont know.
@@mallios13 a lot of those are actually answered in the rest of the books. The ancient language is not inherently magical. Magic is an independent thing. Ancient language is just very effective for focusing the magic to do something, probably due to the "you can't lie" thing. The true name is like the most basic and core description of a person in the ancient language, and names having power over people is a pretty common thing in ancient myths and folklore and stuff. Magic makes you tired because it requires energy, from yourself or elsewhere. Crystals being batteries is probably just because paolini thought it would be cool. Dragons have been in alagaesia before any of the other races so nobody really knows. Dragons develop bonds with riders due to some magical peace pact at the end of the elf dragon war, and humans were included later.
Obligatory 🤓
@@mallios13 So most of those bigger issues are actually covered in the books. Mostly in Eldest while he is training. They don't give us an origin for magic per se. Though we do learn why is it language based. The true names are just the most accurate words to describe you in the ancient language basically. Magic draws on your stamina because it still requires the energy to act you might not like that as an explanation but it is just a rule of this magic system. Over the years the elves found they could store magic in certain gemstones and that is about the most explanation we get there though that isn't a big deal over all. Just another way magic works in universe I suppose. They DEFINITELY cover the dragon bond thing. I don't want to get into it to much in case others haven't read the books but the books are pretty clear on it. As for where the dragons came from... they are just natural creatures in the universe who were they before even the elves. If you want to go after the books you go after the last one lol. They rest are actually pretty solid from memory though after this video I think I will go through them again. It is kind of a journey I take again ever year or two anyways lol.
@@rockyroadmagic4152 OMG! I love that we were pretty much writing these out at the same time lol.
I love how in the books, the water village is actually one of the biggest human cities, and probably the biggest port in the known world. And there is an entire sub-plot with the guy Brom talks to, and the fortune teller Eragon talks to becomes one of the major side characters who offers a lot of insight and lore about the world throughout all of the books, and who also joins and fights alongside Wardens (she even was one of my favorite characters lol)
Angela, the fortune teller will forever be my favorite character from the books. She's hilarious, like one of the only truly funny characters with sassy dialogue in the book besides Saphira. And she's a badass fighter with the coolest weapon in the whole series, so powerful the dwarves practically worship her. And she's based on the author's sister so I guess that's why they made her character so cool.
@@malachicole9551 Yes, I loved her character in the book. But the movie really wrecked her with terrible acting, and changed her personality. I was upset with most of the characters in the movie actually, but I think they did hers the worst.
@@HereIAm247in the movie, she’s a generic fortune teller…
@@malachicole9551 If you don’t make a few ememies now and then, you’re a coward-or worse. Besides, it as worth it to see his reaction. - This line right here is the reason why she is my all time favorite character in eragon
Yeah, the Tierm part also taught Eragon how to read, which is pretty significant plot wise. We also meet Jeod, who's a very important character later on
In the book Brom is killed by the Ra'zac before Eragon is ever captured by Durza.
In the book, Durza is controlling the Urgals. So when he dies, they stop fighting the humans and dwarves (yeah, bearded dude is a dwarf. Couldn't tell, could ya?) and instead start fighting each other cause they're all from different tribes, or just retreat.
It's really best to assume all the plot points in the movie are wrong because so much is changed. You'll be wrong far less that way.
As a reader of the books and someone who has seen the movie, for the love of god, read the books if you're a fantasy fan. Yes, the plot of the first book has some relation to the pacing of A New Hope, but the entire world Eragon is based in is entirely unique. Every question Possum had in this is answered in stride in the actual story. For instance, why dies Eragon seemingly know so little about the outside world? Well, he is a bit more knowledgeable than the movie counterpart, yes, but the village he lives in is almost the most segregated village of the entire empire and world map, so news, soldiers, and all of that would almost never come to said village, save through the few villagers who travelled to trade.
Its a great series and I am hopeful that it will get a second chance with a true collaboration with the author, unlike this expensive mess
As someone who read the books, no, don't read them. Unless your standards for fantasy is really low. I read them when they were new and I was a kid, and even then I could barely stand them. Eldest was abysmally bad.
It's a well written series for a 15-year-old, and it may outshine the fantasy works of puerile adults, but it doesn't hold a candle to well crafted fantasy worlds made by well adjusted adults.
I'd be more curious to see Paolini rewrite the series from the ground up now that he's like 40 and has over a couple decades to absorb more ideas and refine his writing.
@Motsognir well, to each their own.
I have read Tolkien, GRR Martin, McCaffrey, Lewis, Goodkind, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer fantasy, and many more. As a simple series, I guess one that holds a childhood fondness for me, I like the Inheritance Cycle. More than lewis and martin, that's for sure.
Not saying Paolini wrote at a higher level than either of them, and I would agree that it's written simply, and in the teen fantasy novel genre, but its not some terrible series that couldn't have made a much better movie, even though it carries many plot points of obvious sources.
He made it abundantly clear that this was just a movie review. So this comment's 100% invalid.
@Nirmiti idk what makes you think a comment is 'invalid' since it's clearly related to the source material for the 'movie review' and all so, yeah, kind of relevant. If you think a conversation about anything other than the 'movie review' is somehow 'invalid' when it was mentioned in the 'movie review', I can't help but say that I don't follow your logic. Have a nice day.
@@alexandergreene461 The first few (eight or seven lol) of the Wheel of Time are LEAGUES better.
The whole Eragon thing tells me that success is half "what you know" and half "who you know." The kid was definitely a more capable writer than other 15-year-old kids I've known, so he clearly had at least a little knowledge of how to write, but he never would have been discovered if his family hadn't owned a publishing company, and I doubt he would have gotten published otherwise.
Fair enough but I’m kinda glad he had the connections and wrote the books imo they are pretty good literature and we’re some of my first major reads when I was young
@@SivaExperiment Not good enough to teach you how to use apostrophes huh?
@@nathnull8523 more often than not my typing and general writing mannerisms match my speech mannerisms sorry
Paolini also had great support by his producing team and friends and family. In typical writer fashion, he dedicates a couple pages to all the people who helped him write the books in all manners of ways. Reading it helps you understand that these books are not just the work of a genius, but of many dedicated people carefully and patiently working together to refine and perfect the story the author wants to tell, polishing it until the sharp edges are gone and the surfaces shine brightly.
@@nathnull8523 do you expect a well written essay in a comment section?
That's one thing I really like about Possum, he really does his (relevant) research. The history, the director, the budget, all of it. Bravo.
16:42 Another case of a book written by a teen making more sense than this movie: In the books Saphira flies either high enough to pass for a bird (dragons being able to fly at heights that humans cant even breathe at, so its similar to watching a plane fly overhead) or she flies close enough to the ground to use hills etc as cover (the main issue was other travelers on the same route Brom and Eragon used seeing the dragon and spreading the word, so it was enough that Saphira was hidden from the road, not hidden from the ground in general).
I laughed more and more with every deliberate mispronunciation of Galbatorix's name lmfao
I have always loved how the CGI for Draco from Dragonheart, a movie made back in 1996, still holds up compared to this. 🤣
The voice of Sean Connery holds that much power it made the CGI good :D
I feel the same way comparing Draco to Smaug in the Hobbit trilogy. Especially when you consider that Weta had to amputate Smaug's forelimbs because animating a four-legged dragon was too much work for them, so they just made him a wyvern despite Tolkien's own illustration of Smaug depicting him with four legs.
Weta can brag about how it took them 2 weeks to render each scale on his body, but that's not impressive so much as it sounds immensely wasteful, and they still had to make him a wyvern rather than a proper dragon.
And when I say "amputate," I mean that literally. The original theatrical release of An Unexpected Journey only featured Smaug in little bits, but the CGI model for those quick flashes did have four legs. When they did Desolation of Smaug, they removed the forelimbs from the model, and retroactively changed AUJ's home release so eagle-eyed viewers couldn't spot a four-legged dragon. They actually went to that effort to be lazy.
@@mallios13 It's like we're screaming at Weta "Tony Stark built this in a CAVE! With a box of 90's scraps!"
Yea I could watch Dragonheart now!
Ehh.... no, not really. Honestly that movie had really dodgy CGI. Reign of Fire, now THAT holds up, because it wisely mostly kept the dragon appearances at night. Eragon was a crappy movie, but Saphira actually looks pretty detailed and the facial animation is quite good.
I love when you get over your never-ending contempt for humanity and impending suicide just long enough to get another review out. Cheers.
I saw the name "eragon" and imagined it was made because the author mistyped "dragon" one time on a keyboard and before he deleted it was like "you know what? That's actually kinda cool!"
Considering the "E" is directly above "D" on common keyboards, this is alarmingly probable lol.
the "era" of dragons is "gone"? xD
don't worry, i'll see myself out!
@@PairsathIt seems it actually is a play on "an era is gone"
Alright I read the books here the lore, and it's actually kinda cool I think: the main Eragon, the main character, is named after the ORIGINAL Eragon, who was the first person to ever befriend dragons. But at that point dragons as a species had no name, so they took Eragons name and created the word "dragon". Personally I think that's pretty cool but might be just me
It's not, Christopher Paolini, the author, who was 15 when he wrote Eragon, loved Lord of the Rings, so he named his main character Eragon (like Eragorn)
"end then he slaps Eragon for being smartass, but this scene was cut out" ahaha, suuure
I remember my mom dragging me out to see this movie in theaters, she expected it to be amazing because, and I quote "the writer grew up on a farm, which means he must have an amazing imagination, because otherwise he would have died of boredom because he was living on a farm his whole life."
It's only all these years later that I realize my mother has a low opinion of the rural lifestyle...
I think the giant monster at the end is supposed to be an adult razac. In the book its explained that they start up as intelligent humanoids and as they mature, they turn into giant bird/bat creatures, that can overpower even dragons. I read the books a long time ago, but i think there were only 2 of them.
Given how the Raz'zac in this version are dirt monsters, maybe their parents are shadow monsters. But it doesn't really make sense. They were described as having four legs and wings, thick muscles visible through their naked skin and with beaks.
I dint think so, they don't really explore that until the 3rd book, and this catastrophe changes the rules to the point where I don't think they read any other books.
No, because he summons it in the middle of the battle spit can’t be
No it looks way to much like a dragon and even then he just makes it appear mid battle which just isn't how they work
Nah, they couldnt overpower Dragons. Saphira took on both of them and only really got injured because they were in an enclosed space and took her by surprise. The moment she got her claws on them, they were done.
As someone who has read the books I can say without a doubt that they're very well written and definitely worth the read.
When I saw the movie after reading the books I was actually disgusted on how they handled everything and how much things were changed.
And the director of this was never seen again.
They did the „cut content, realize movie is too short, add padding“.
They cut the twins... I actually saw this with my friend when it hit theaters in middle school. His dad picked us up straight from the school and took us to the theater. We were like 12 and walked out of the theater wondering wtf we had just watched.
The books were great. I read them multiple times throughout high school, the school's librarian actually gave me a copy of the first book because I found it on one of those rolling shelf things that wasn't registered into the system
@@GoodHunter9 I still can't believe that they did that... especially since the twins were one of the reasons the varden was in shambles and the urgle army along with Durza could even get in in the first place, if memory serves (its been a couple of years since I've read the book).
I never normally leave comments but, as an avid fan of the books since I was a child, I would like to thank you so much for both reinforcing what an absolute insult this film is to Paolini (who pretends it doesn't exist when asked) and for doing enough research to point out some of the biggest inconsistencies that are actually much better explored in the books. I try to watch this every now and then and make a tally of all the ways they monumentally messed up and I can never get more than 30 mins in without rage quitting.
@@alexandergreene461 Eragon definitely is the flattest character of the bunch at the start. He does get a little better later on as the author got older and realized some mistakes he made and added to stuff in the later books though. But still definitely "Dude who does things" lol
@@alexandergreene461 The movie turned Eragon into a stereotypical teenage boy
Also the Razac are some of the characters who were portrayed in the worst way. They were the arch enemies of the dragons in the books, capable of fighting toe to toe with a fully trained dragon rider. And here some farm boy kills one of them instantly.
I read the novels, and I have seen the movie. The number of other problems and discrepancies is fast. 1) Eragon nearly kills himself attempting to produce water in a desert. 2) Murtagh trains Eragon with the sword picking up where Brom left off, a scene or montage cut from the movie, but included in the photographs of the movie edition of the book. 3) The villainous twins and the magic users of the Varden are missing. 4) Eragon takes a severe injury to his back that leaves him nearly crippled through the majority of the next book. 5) There are voices that communicate to him as he is fading out instructing him to come and see them. 6) Lastly, though there are many other issues even I have not addressed, Angela is not Angela!! She is a woman of indeterminate years possessed of a mercurial temper and an even more outlandish sense of the ridiculous. She is far more than the surface for that she seems and is skilled both in magic and in combat. She drives Eragon to distraction, but her lessons teach him to be more considerate and thoughtful, not make rash assumptions, and to see the many angles of an issue. She is also likely the strongest wielder of magic in the entire novel with Eragon having the potential to be her only rival. This humble yet ferocious presence from the novel is reduced to a mere fortune teller of no significance.
Man I still remember when Angela dropped 20 people with an unknown spell that is eluded to dilate time.
@@dissolution9843 i always love the difference in power between fantasy and sci-fi worlds. like i love me my sci-fi. planet destroying weapons, warping vast interstllar and sometimes intergalactic distances, insanely cool robotics
and then fantasy comes in and says "yeah, ill just dilate time rq, hold on." i love fantasy worlds just as much but there isn't a limit when it comes to magic and its always fascinating to observe
I remember when this came out. My friends and I liked the books quite a bit, even if it was pretty obvious they borrowed from other stories heavily. We were so ticked off at the movie. Seriously, the Urgals have ram horns. It's a major defining feature and plays into their culture quite a bit when you learn about them in later books. The movie director claimed they didn't have horns in the movie for some reason like he was making them more his thing. Came off like a total idiot. The horns were what made the Urgals somewhat unique. Without them they're just people with a weird name.
And seven toes on each foot. Don’t forget the toes
21:55 "Does Eragon even know how to read?"
Actually in the books, Eragon is illiterate and has to learn."
True. And he learns how in like a week. It's very silly.
@@spartan1879 True
@@spartan1879 he gets the basics, and then proceeds to struggle to read over the course of the books and requires practice to improve.
@@spartan1879 I don't think it's that far-fetched. He already knows how to speak, so I would assume if the Alagaesian language is only a tad bit more regular than english, by knowing roughly how the letters sound he could be able to read in a matter of days, albeit slowly, like he does in the book. As a matter of fact, you could learn to read Korean in hours.
He only really becomes fluently literate in eldest, when he visits du velden varden to study under togira ikonoka
His thousands of names he gives Galbatorix cracks me up every time!
It is a humorous name as the -trix suffix in latin is female
@@vidmastereon -orix is different though. Example: Vercingetorix, leader of the Gallic alliance against Caesar
Fun fact about this series: the author never wanted to be a author. His parents pushed him to write it because they wanted a famous author as a child.
Its funny you ask if Sapphira can hear Eragon's thoughts even when he's thinking of mush, because in the books Eragon has a huge crush on Arya and would often fanatsize about her to the point it became a little obsessive. Sapphira would hear everything going on in his head to the point she literally had to talk him out of it at times, especially after he got rejected by Arya in the third book.
However, Sapphira has to also be at a certain distance in order to hear Eragon's thoughts so if she's far enough away from him then she can't hear him even if he calls her.
40:12
So fun fact about the budget! Apparently they modeled Saphira before they had actually finalized her design and had to waste massive amounts of money fixing her /several/ times over during the course of production.
These books fueled my escapism and love for fantasy and I am furious with what they did with the movie
Why the Shade and Soldiers do what they do really only makes sense in the books.
So anybody in service to the king is sworn to serve him in the ancient language. The language that’s used for the series Magic system. Because they’re sworn in under their “true names”, they can’t do anything but obey the king.
The soldiers are also a lot more intense too. Because they’re enchanted to not feel pain. Which makes them bolder and more of a force to be reckoned with because without pain it takes substantially more effort to take them down. Like zombies that still have fully fit and healthy bodies.
Eragon’s cousin is more badass too. Takes up a sledgehammer and makes a name for himself with it. He’s John Henry, and the soldiers were just railroad spikes.
Also. Safira drinks Mead. She bites the barrel and drains it. I don’t know why but that’s hilarious to me.
You think DUI is bad, imagine that with dragons.
I sometimes feel bad for the soldiers. From descriptions of the battles, it is clear that many of them are conscripts that simply do not want to be there in any capacity. And then sometimes we get instances where the soldiers would also happily rape the female characters. And my sympathy for them just flies away.
Well the being enchanted into not feeling pain happens in like the 3rd book
Oh yea the mead incident that will be the funniest thing to picture in my head for all of time
@@des4929 And also it's only some of the soldiers. Robbing the entire army of any sense of self-preservation would be a terrible idea.
@Ni-dk7ni especially in eragon since it was said multiple times soldiers are there but the real battle is fought between the mages who protect them from enemy mages since 1 well skilled mage can just sever some veins in the brain and the whole enemy army is dead. i think we even see that in the books a couple times but im not completely sure since it was about 5 years since i read them.
I like how the clothing in this world used a modern polo shirt pattern at 4:03 with obvious machine-made stitching
worst part is that the elves and dwarves are nonexistent. and that sucks as some of the dwarves are just absolutely amazing characters that really make the slow parts of the story so much more interesting.
Not to mention that it's a pretty significant plot point later that Eragon is adopted by a dwarf clan leader, which helps a lot with rallying more people and utilizing the honor of that title. And the reason why that dwarf has so much authority is because he's a badass leader in the books who does a ton of stuff...and promptly doesn't even exist in the movie.
exactly. there is a whole section of the 3rd book where he spends it with the dwarves. followed by his time with the elves to get his proper sword. @@joshuakim5240
I understand a book cannot directly translate to film. However, im becoming more and more suspicious that it is at least partly an excuse for creatively bankrupt showrunners to put in their own stupid ideas out of arrogance. They need to make the story their own. They actually think they're on the same level as the person who created the story, so instead of tailoring the story to fit, they actually change it.
The "evil cannot create anything new" quote has been popular for this exact reason.
Yeah...some changes are important.
Others are just baffling and terrible.
Kind of stopped in the middle of the third book, but I remember the scene where Eragon is turned into a half-elf and realises that he's actually a freak of nature now and can never re-enter human society properly. Also, Eragon takes Seraphina to space, they both nearly die and promise each other to never do that again.
Not space, just SUPER high into the air thanks to a hurricane's wind providing a boost.
@@5peciesunkn0wn
Eragon having his mind blown by seeing with his own eyes that "the sky is hollow, and the earth is round" is one of my favourite scenes from that book for some reason.
@@matthewbreytenbach4483 It's just a great scene. It was probably similar to what some people's first reactions to flying on a plane back when they were first being built was.
@@5peciesunkn0wn
I suppose so🤔
@@matthewbreytenbach4483 I always imagine it like scene of Neo & Trinity flying into Machine City from Matrix: Revolutions, but with some modifications.
Eragon & Sapphira are flying through storm, wind is tossing them around, they clearly are struggling. Then, they are above the clouds, we see curvature of horizon, black space above them with grey and white storming clouds below. Cut, we see utter shock and realisation of their smallness on Eragon face, and they both plunged into freefall into storm. They just fall, Sapphira is barely holding straight position. Cut. We had gigantic panorama shot of Vroengard, Sapphira is only a tiny dot on screen, there is storm and lightning in slow-mo. Cut. Frantic and panicked perspective of both rider and dragon.
Considering how many of the dragon's lines are just rehashing the obvious/ don't add much to the plot, they could've removed them from the screenplay entirely and it wouldn't have changed much. It seriously feels like her lines were added as an afterthought.
The books make it very clear that she's an individual with her own thoughts, feelings, and desires; the movie treats her more like an oversized doggie.
2:35 One of my close friends really wanted to see this movie when it was in theaters and the previews for it were on TV. He kept calling it "E-Dragon" no matter how many times me, my wife, or his girlfriend corrected him. We weren't even children or something, we were in our early 20s. He was just dyslexic and almost functionally illiterate. Cracked me up to see you point out the obvious there.
I remember my 6th grade teacher mentioning her son loved all the books and was disappointed when he saw the movie.
@@alexandergreene461agreed
Noone mentioned this yet so l gonna say it. In the book they won so easily because the urgal army was just a conglomeration of various enemy tribes that were only following durza because of some magic mind control powers and after his death they simply lost their shit and started to flee and killing each other.
Also there were actually dwarfs in thronheim tons of them in fact and the warden were merely seeking refuge there.
I don't think that tronjheim was a much populated city, mostly because the farms were elsewhere, but there were definitely a lot of dwarves. Tronjheim is holy to them after all. The star saphire is their pride and joy
I watched that in the theatres, on the way out I looked at my friend and said "That was a movie, I'll be forgetting before I go to work tonight."
even in the book it was pretty much star wars if it took place in a lord of the rings type fantasy setting, (with a surprisingly well thought out and complex magic system) and a lot more focus on dragons.
Finally someone admit it
I can't believe this movie is one of my key childhood memories that contributed to my love of fantasy and magic, along with:
1.) Final fantasy 4
2.) Final fantasy tactics
3.) Spectrobes
4.) Rave master
5.) Phantom Dust
6.) Ninety-Nine Nights
7.) Zatch Bell
8.) Calvin and Hobbes
In the book, Eragon grew up hearing the stories of the dragon riders, and he loved them. In fact, Brom was essentially the village storyteller, and every year they had a festival and Brom would tell the stories. It was only in the last one before Eragon's adventure kicks off that he tells the one of Galbatorix's betrayal. Because if any loyalist heard the story and told one of Galbie's enforcers, Brom would be arrested and executed. Or rather, Eragon's uncle had heard the story a long time ago, because Brom very rarely told it out of fear of reprisal.
"He could be one of THOSE people."
Aw hell naw
i wouldn't be surprised if he was a scalie
They could’ve just had a “one month later” tag on the movie for the dragon growing up
Galvatron definitely never called it a stone in the books. I'm pretty sure we don't actually meet him until the last one, but we do hear about him as often as you'd expect, so it's not a surprise that they put him in the movie. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Eragon himself *was* convinced that it was a stone for a while, but it kept changing and iirc he decided at some point that it was definitely an egg of something. Also, there's no stupid shit about the dragon flying off and coming back fully grown. She grows over time like you'd expect in the books. It's been like a decade since I've read them.
I don't know, man. It's hard to comment, as an adult, on a YA series that I read as a teenager. But I did watch this movie after reading the book, and I remember being very disappointed.
edit: I distinctly remember that the beginning of book three was this crazy revenge mission against the creatures that Durza summoned, and that was pretty cool. There's this shit about Eragon being close to death so he starts absorbing the life force from grass to sustain his life but he's like a super vegan* so then he looks back at all the grass he killed and feels guilty about it.
*He becomes a super vegan because of something to do with the elves during book two, I think? Like he basically learns how to plug his consciousness into nature and after that he stops eating meat. It's honestly pretty cool conceptually, but the grass thing still makes me laugh.
Yes, after he felt the daily life of all animals and plants around him, he wanted to eat meat, thought how the rabbit felt and threw up. After the escaping you described he was disgusted bc he lost control and there would not grow anything for a while, but to go on he needet to eat meat again. He found, that Saphira would scold him, if he died bc of hunger, that the rabbit is fighting for life like he himself and if he could live without eating them it's all good, but if he's in a distress, he has to put himself above the rabbit (and the grass 🤭) Later he convinces himself, he hasn't to be this dogmatic and can eat meat if "it would be rude" not to 😅
Interestingly he and the elves never say to other people to not eat meat, althoug the elves hold themselves higher than other races 🤔
And his journey from the peasant with "why the Hell would you not eat meat?!!" over "shit, poor rabbits :'(" to "I liked how it tasted..." is kinda funny.
@SaridenChan There was a scene in the third book where Eragon is travelling with the Urgal chief, and they're having a giant feast of animal meat. I remember thinking "what happened to his pledge to only eat meat in moderation?". I think the author forgot XD
galvatron is the herald of unicron
@@SaridenChan i think elves dont tell others to go vegan bcz they have respect for other cultures and also dont expect other races to understand the connection with nature all of them felt during their training.
Did Durza or Gabapentin's other minions know what it was? I admit I haven't read The Inheritance Cycle myself, but I could potentially believe that he would hide its true nature as a dragon egg so as to not give any minions with will or power of their own any ideas of overthrowing him.
I actually never finished reading the books but, with the conscription plot the producers just threw away half of the secondary plots that could be used if the movie ever got a sequel. Looks like they realized it was not going to happen right during script writing.
Also killing the butcher in the movie (yes seems like trivial but is actually important, hecking butterfly effect), canceled out the whole sideplot with his cousin, leading him to be an actuall war hero
Eragon looks like he is closer to 40 than 18.
I hated the killing of the Ra'zacs in the movie.
One of the strangely interesting aspects of the books is that the main character has very selfish interests, and one of his prime motivations for even helping the rebellion is soothing his raging revenge-boner by killing the Ra'zacs.
Removing them takes away a fair bit of his character motivation and makes him even more of a generic good hero guy.
Wow - I just noticed that all shots of Eragon and Jeremy Irons from 16:26 to 16:40 are greenscreened, which is amazing since it's doing nothing but depicting them against a forest backdrop..
I suppose that shows the film's overall lack of effort right there
I have a roommate that i swear to god she watches this EVERY DAY MULTIPLE TIMES a day...i get so sick of it, i stay in my room.
With names like "Jeremy Irons", "John Malkovich", "Robert Carlyle", "Djimon Hounsou", and "Rachel Weisz", you'd THINK that it wouldn't be THAT $HITTY!!! 😳
Great video btw (as always)!! Thanks for making me laugh my ass off!!🤣👍
"She's not gonna fk you, dude "
Lmao
How aggressively accurate 👌
And the books said unto him: "you right"
Saphira is like 16 years younger than Eragon, yet manages to get laid 100 times faster.
Her dating game is so much stronger than his it's actually sad.
@@runtergerutscht4401 to be fair Saphira is the last female dragon alive
@@Stivonim the last in alagaesia, at least.
But Eragon is also the only male dragonrider alive who isn't a major edgelord with lots of trauma issues to work through. Plus he's the second coming of the original Eragon, as well as the hero who saved everyone and defeated Galbatorix.
And even the age difference is similar. Firnen literally just hit dragon puberty when he met Saphira, and she's multiple times his age and has already accumulated greater knowledge than normal for her age, studying the dragon ways under Glaedr and experiencing the memories of ancient dragons through their eldunari. She is basically the arya to Firnen's Eragon, the only real difference being that Arya's friendzoning powers are a lot stronger than Eragon's flirting.
@@runtergerutscht4401 Saphira is way more stressed to have a partner tough, Arya doesn't care about finding an husband because it's not like she is the last of her kind, the fact that she is 100 years old isn't helping Eragon either.
Ahhh I loved Eragon as a child. I guess it does make sense seeing where the source material came from. Loll. I love your reviews though so I can't wait to watch this after I get something to eat.
Dang, that inconsequential dragon was a menace
I cannot BELIEVE I've reread the entire series at least four times in the past decade and never ONCE realized that Eragon is dragon with an E
Hollywood wanted so badly another L.O.T.R franchise sucsess to milk !!!!
Understatement. They were going outright berserk with the mediocre adaptations of fantasy novels back in the mid-2000s.
Yup. They wanted to milk that baby dragon.
@@favoritemustard3542 Indeed!
@@TheWolfgangGrimmer Well I have seen some B-movies of this but I think you have a point!
“Eragon is just a worse version of Star Wars”
I’d still prefer Eragon over Episodes 7-9.
02:19 - Durza should have replied with "OK" and killed Galvatronatrix or whatever John Malkovich is. What sort of evil overlord tells his henchman to "do not prolong my suffering"? :D
7:04 The big gross scar that in the book was a magical silver symbol that often shined with magic. This movie was such a travesty XD
I was a massive fan of these books in middle school.
This movie was the first time I realized that a "movie deal" was something to fear, and I'm still not quite over it.
Oh, John Malkovich ...the best, terribly written bad guy in a movie ever.
The sad part is that this and Resident Evil Apocalypse was the most mainstream Sienna Guilleri would ever get.
id like to see her return as Islanzadi in the series when it comes out
@@ajgunter8932
Series?
@@matthewbreytenbach4483 eragon is coming to disney+
@@ajgunter8932
Sweetness!
Ah Possum. Dont ever change. Love the review man.
Man, I remember finishing the book series when I was younger, and I really loved it. The best part about the books was the relationship dynamics for me and how real a lot of the interactions felt. Since I was young too, I didn't notice some of the lesser qualities.
Then I found out a movie had been made and it was so infuriating bad. This will always be up there for me, along with last air bender as worst adaptation fuck ups.
They could have probably had a long, profitable movie franchise if they just stayed faithful and allowed longer run time for more nuance and development. As is usually the case with most these terrible flops.
I've been watching through all of your reviews and this one is still the one that rips SHRIEKS of laughter out of me, it's so good and so funny
Your misnaming of Galbatorix is hilarious. XD
I have fond memories of listening to the soundtrack for this movie as a kid and I still occasionally listen to some tracks. I also remember going to the Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History in 2007 and seeing a dragon section that had Eragon behind-the-scenes footage of the character-designing of Saphira. I never read the books, but I remember my sister read a couple of them but lost interest during the third book Brisingr. I heard a lot of mixed thoughts about the books. I know they are seen as laughably bad to plenty of people, while the series has a pretty decent fanbase, and I heard a lot of negativity about the movie. I remember seeing the movie on television as a kid, and seeing the poster in places and wondering if it was a movie adaptation of Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. XD I recently saw Ed Speleers in Outlander as the villain after Black-Jack Randall, Stephen Bonnet, and he was great in that role. I'm so glad that starring in this movie didn't diminish his career or any of the other actors and actresses.
Great review, my dude. Keep up the good work!
@@alexandergreene461 The entire series by Robin Hobb that starts with the Farseer Trilogy all leads up to dragons coming back into that world. It's one of the best examples of world-building and has amazing setups that are very satisfying - but also it's emotionally draining to read. Highly recommended.