The review in my local paper was very funny.
I especially like this
and the summary
I was on the fence about going to see it because I never got around to reading the book. I think I’ll wait and rent the DVD.
Wait…Dungeons and Dragons was fun?
Well, I thought it was. It probably helped that we rented it specifically for the badness, though.
And it probably doesn’t help that I’m a gamer geek (the rpg equivalent of the raging fanboys posting bitter jeremiads against the Lord of the Rings movies, etc.). 
Update: We didn’t see it.
When getting ready to go, my son told me that he had heard from several of his friends that the film “sucked monkeys.” This from a kid that lives for dragons, elves, and many other upronouncable beastie-things.
But, like Bites When Provoked says, I’m now developing a morbid interest in seeing it. Maybe with some other folks for an evening of MST3K-ing it to death.
Well, I use chalky to mean dry, hard to get through, and/or immemorable. It’s possible that I’m unusual for using it this way, but dictionary.com cites it as meaning “without resonance…warmth,” which I think is as good a definition as any.
The parts of Dungeons and Dragons where the actors were aware of how silly their dialogue sounded and hammed it up anyway just for fun were fun. In Eragon the actors were never so self-aware and no one has any fun. Jeremy Irons in particular played the same role in both movies. He clearly had a wonderfully good time in Dungeons and Dragons, but here he’s like a bored eight-grader acting out a skit in English class.
That’s my opinion, anyway.
I haven’t read the book, but I have enjoyed reading the bad reviews and anti-Inheritance (the name of the trilogy is Inheritance) sites, like this one. I haven’t seen any accusations of ghost-writing before though.
I just might rent the movie so I can mock it. John Malkovich’s performance sounds fun.
I take it you’ve never seen The Core then?
I remember that happening in the early 1980s, following the success of Conan the Barbarian – a string of sword-and-sorcery flicks, of varying quality. Mostly pretty awful, but a few good ones.
Likewise, there was a rash of post-apocalypse movies in the wake of Mad Max.
Got a link? I wanted to read the scathing reviews, but I don’t find the book on Amazon.
Sorry; it’s on Amazon dot ca, not Amazon dot com, ey? Amazon.ca
See also:
http://www.theosophy.com/theos-talk/199912/tt00033.html
http://cultinfobooks.com/pub_affnb/affnbsubscribers/Conference_2002_Report.htm
Saw it this afternoon. Definitely not great, but not run out of the theatre bad either. I would rate it batter than Dead Man’s Chest, but that’s sure not saying much. I would call it LOTR lite.
One of the things that put me off and I never got over it by the end of the movie was the Saphira’s voice. I’ll be honest, I’m not familiar enough with Rachel Weisz’s voice to know if this is her normal voice but it just seemed an odd match.
I agree with others regarding the story jumping around and not much effort being placed on character development.
IMHO, they are about the same.
I guess I just hate this more than alot of people because of the plot development and the 2d characters it presents. Those two things are really a deal breaker on a movie for me.
I’m so glad this thread is here and already populated as it saves me the time of having to create one. I’ve read the first book and it was bad. Very bad. So bad that I’m still having to go and visit my fond memories of LOTR because they’re currently in a rape shelter screaming “make it stop, I’ll do anything just make the pain stop!”. I blame myself as I was determined to finish the book to see if it in any way redeemed itself but, of course, it didn’t. I’ve been seeing the ads for the second book everywhere and each time I have to force down the urge to heave.
Like most people there is a part of me that wants to see this film to see just how bad it really could be, but then it’s the same part that likes being tied up and having red hot needles slowly pushed through my eyes and as such lost its right to vote in any decision making process I make a long time ago.
I’m not prone to exageration, I really do feel this strongly about how bad the whole Eragon franchise is as, if nothing else, it reduces fantasy (yet again) to the status of literature’s dysentry-infected, leprosy-suffering cousin.
Uh-oh. I read the Daily Mail’s review.
I hated Dead Man’s Chest or whatever PC2 was called. Do I really have to go to this movie now with my 8 year old son (he’s dying to go)? Maybe if I took drugs prior to…anyone have any?
See, there’s bad, and then there’s excruciatingly, embarassing to watch bad.
I have a feeling that Eragon is the latter. Yikes.
Go see it with your son. Take a book and some headphones.
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" dialogue so flat it could be by George Lucas " Oh, snap!
I saw it on Saturday and I enjoyed it.
No accounting for taste, huh?