I got together with some friends for a Christmas party and to go see Eragon. Well, at least the Christmas party was good. I guess reading the book first was a mistake because even though you could tell that it was written by someone a little younger, but at least he had talent enough to tell a good story. The movie really falls flat in a number of areas.
First off, it doesn’t merely diverge from the book, it changed whole sections, and not for the better. It’s one thing to shorten longer sections to keep people from having to sit through a too long movie, but even that one can be countered by the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. What they did here was to completely change sections a-la Greedo shooting first.
Also, the acting was wooden and less than believable in many cases. I’m also going to lump the cinematography in here. The camera work was terrible. Too many closeups being used to portray I don’t know what. It just didn’t work.
I definitely wouldn’t go back to see this one again and won’t be buying the DVD. I’m not going to say that you should stay away from the movie, just that you should adjust your expectations accordingly.