Jonathan Van Allen

As a stand alone movie for kids is decent, as a stand alone movie for adults it is mediocre... As an interpretation of the book it was horrendous and not in the “the book was better” sort of way but rather in the sense that they changed so many things that producing a sequel based on the second book is pretty much impossible. In fact you could pretty much watch the movie without any risk of spoiling the book. I do appreciate that this is a big book (similar to lord of the rings) and that some stuff must be excluded. A longer movie that included key points (Rowan’s love for Katrina that is foundational for the rest of the movies; the Razzak as a species with few remaining, not a being conjured by a spell; much of Murtagh and Arya’s stories; Eragon’s injury, the two remaining eggs, etc) would have set this up for a truly epic series of movies. I watched this originally in theatres and then rewatched it today to see if it was maybe less bad than I thought. The CGI was better than I remembered but the storyline was much worse. I would love to see this remade with a proper budget and script. I have read the books twice, listened to the audio books more than a dozen times and would happily buy a well made movie; this just wasn’t it and may have ruined the opportunities for a more accurate movie that appeals to all ages, not just kids. It feels harsh as I write this because I know about the effort involved in making a movie like this; it’s a decent kids movie; it just isn’t what the book series set it up for.