Eragon: A Concurring Opinion

I agree with much of what Rob has to say about the recent film Eragon, in particular with regards to the dragon character design and effects. Those were the only part of the film that could be considered good. As for my opinion of the film overall, Eragon wasn't quite as bad as The Sword and the Sorcerer, but worse than the first Dungeons and Dragons movie. Maybe the Gymkata comparison is a perfect one, as I am willing to rewatch Gymkata if only to mock its feeble attempt to emulate a martial arts film.

The novel Eragon was a clunky, but fun, piece of juvenalia that anyone older than 5 would recognize the tropes and lack of surprises. As for the movies, some jave gone as far as to say the movie is Star Wars remade, but that is only true in so far as Star Wars is an unabashed replication of the Hero of a Thousand Faces thesis.

Star Wars translates the Space Opera and Planetary Romance through the lens of Joseph Campbell while Eragon translates Star Wars through the lens of Tolkien and Romantic Fantasy.

My complaints about Eragon have nothing to do with whether the film was original in its ideas.

Eragon wasn't original, but neither was Star Wars. The first Lucas film, A New Hope, is riddled with images and narrative arcs liberally lifted from other material. In fact, there are those who say that Star Wars is merely Lord of the Rings. I am not one of those, I know that Star Wars is Flash Gordon meets Buck Rogers. Lucas even borrowed the "energy bridge swashbuckler swinging" scene from Flash Gordon. Regardless of its influences, Star Wars is a great movie. It is inspired by the serials and by planetary romances (don't forget that planetary romance giant Leigh Brackett wrote a draft of Empire Strikes Back -- she also wrote Rio Bravo one of my favorite Westerns)

Eragon, on the other hand, is uninspired. It borrows plot points, but lacks heart.

What does it have? Well...let's see.

• Young boy with unknown parents, raised by an uncle, destined for greatness ala King Arthur and Luke Skywalker? Check.


• Evil lord ruling the land ala Tolkien? Check.


• Order of mystical knights betrayed by one of their own like the Samurai, Jedi, and Knights of the Round Table? Check.


• A potent magic item of objectionable past ala Lord of the Rings and The Elric Saga, Hawk the Slayer, Sword and the Sorcerer, and Krull? Check.


• Elves and Dwarves? Heard of but not seen...Check


• Helms Deep? Check


• Powerful unnatural hunters pursuing our hero ala Lord of the Rings, The Shannara Series, and most Greek hero narratives? Check.


• Mysterious old master training our young pup ala Merlin, Obi Wan, and Cheiron? Check

Wow! This movie has everything but a flying frisbee weapon called the Glaive and yet it still lacks heart. The movie was just going through the motions.

Eragon

I have not had much opportunity to go to the movies over the last 2 years. That being said, I did manage to go to Eragon over the Christmas break. I would like to start with something positive but all I can come up with was that the special effects for the dragon were quite good. That is really the end of the list. The movie belongs in the dregs of movie history along with Gymkata, the Kurt Thomas masterpiece.

It was simply a terrible movie. The plot was clunky, the dialogue contrived and the story was horrid. There was never a thought that the villains would prevail, they were shown to be extremely inept. The characters were hard to care about and two normally good actors Irons and Malkovich were rather uninspired. Perhaps, child support or a new pool needed to be paid for. Malkovich simply walked about his throne room and hatched his evil plans, dreadful.

I am usually an easy critic, I only want to be entertained. I wasn't. There was no suspension of disbelief and the story was so clunky that if I hadn't been with friends I would have walked out. So to Eragon to enthusiastic thumbs down. You can't get the hour and forty minutes back once you waste them on this movie. Don't do it.

Merry Christmas!

AMC to Bring New Version of The Prisoner to the Black Box

While the movie catalogue of American Movie Classics has shrunk since the arrival of Turner Classic Movies, the catalogue of quality television shows on the channel has increased. Last year, I was obsessed with watching each new episode of Hustle. The show lifted narratives from some of my favorite grifter based movies, everything from "The Sting" to the highly under-rated "Traveller" served as inspiration for the series. As I watched each new episode, I felt the joy I felt when I first read Walter Gibson's (the creator of The Shadow) The Bunco Book with its tales of cons and conmen.

Now AMC is partnering with Granada and Sky One to bring to our mind-numbing black boxes a remake of the classic television series The Prisoner. Those who have read this blog for some time know that I used to go by the nom d'cyber Number One, a direct reference to this television show. For those who thought it was a Star Trek reference, let me quote Robert in the wonderful Gen-X film Free Enterprise "I would never live in the 24th century! I fucking HATE "The Next Generation". Only classic!" Needless to say, I am very jazzed about the possibility of a new Prisoner series.

But before some member of Six of One wanders into this website wondering at my Prisoner street cred, let me just set the record straight. I like the show, I don't obsess about it like I do about Avengers comic books (the one with Thor). In fact, I am one of those controversial and strange animals that thinks of The Prisoner as a sequel to Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) and was introduced to both The Prisoner and Danger Man by the Danger Mouse cartoon (though it also borrowed liberally from Holmes and 007).

As a bonus, AMC will run the original series at the same time they debut the new one.

PSP Finally Marketing Some of Its Functionality

Maybe you've seen the newest Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) commercial where the girlfriend leaves pictures on her boyfriend's PSP with the note to "find me." Maybe you've said to yourself, "Isn't the PSP just a video game machine which also has overpriced minidisc movies?" Surprisingly, the PSP is far more than that. The PSP is one of the most amazing multimedia devices available. It plays video games, mp3s, stores photos, can watch movies, has wireless access. Oh...and it also has web browsing capabilities.

One small problem...Sony forgot to tell people what this device is capable of doing. It looks like that might change as Sony has decided, due to poor UMD (you know the overpriced minidisc movie) sales. I looks like Sony is going to offer downloadable movie content for your PSP.

Is Stop Motion Photography Animation?

I remember reading an article, or hearing a radio interview, about the nature of music manipulation and its relation to copyright protection. Moby was talking about how djs give added value to existing music, either altering an existing song sufficiently to give new meaning or using such small clips that the resulting mix was an entirely new song. The crux of the conversation was that the turn-table could be considered a musical instrument. I think there is some merit to that position, but that the added value needs to be significant for any given song to be a truly new creation.

I was reminded of the above conversation when I saw the video below. It looks like Lasse Gjertsen has managed to find a way to turn stop motion photography into an animated song. All the music is original, but what struck me was Lasse's claim that he didn't know how to play a piano or a drum set. Even if he is not lying, he is obviously quite proficient at manipulating sound editing software, and video software, to create an intriguing video. But is stop motion animation of a real person animation? If so...is this animation? Discuss.

Star Wars as Mentos Commercial

A friend of mine who I used to work with at my workstudy job at USC directed this Star Wars Fan Film.