Eragon

Before Christmas, I read the book. After Christmas, I saw the movie.

Therefore, to begin, here's my assessment of the book.

Eragon, Book One of the Inheritance Trilogy was written by Christopher Paolini who was born in 1983. Knopf acquired the rights to this book in 2002 after Paolini's family self-published the book. According to his website, Paolini was home-schooled in Montana, he wrote for himself and he started work on this particular trilogy as a teenager. To me, all of that is painfully obvious.
The book is incredibly formulaic and the characters aren't particularly interesting or compelling. Eragon, a destined hero of humble origins, must experience loss, undergo trials, and learn from an older mentor. There are tales from an older golden age whispered of in dark rooms -- most of which the hero is totally unaware of as though his supposedly natural intelligence and curiosity hasn't kicked in until just now. He is sought after by evil powers who want to control him and he must come into his own. In addition to humans, there are dwarfs and elves (he falls for a elven princess, too) and a secret language of magic. None of this is particularly creative anymore. It's written decently but it's clearly written by an author who knows little of life and has read a great deal. Everywhere it a recycled plot or detail from another fantasy novel. The only thing that makes this book different from Lord of the Rings is the addition of dragons -- and even then, it's not telling us anything new about dragons (oooh, they're wise -- go figure). The elven princess that he rescues is unconscious through most of the book but I'm actually kind of grateful as it saves us the trouble of reading a teenager's version of flirtatious dialogue. I did like the emphasis on education and learning as Eragon is taught to read, fight, and perform magic.
The worst thing, however, is the fact that it isn't funny. There's no whimsy to this, which (to me) defines a fantasy novel. Without any quirky sense of humor, what's the point?

The movie, on the other hand, took pains to change a few details that were too reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. The elven princess is no longer dark-haired (too Liv Tyler)... instead, she's a redhead (the redhead always triumphs, I say) and not even an elf. She plays a bigger role than she did in the book (being conscious helps) and instead of shying away from romance in the first book, the movie hints at mutual attraction and appeal. Thus, Eragon is a bit older in the
movie. The older mentor (Brom) is played by Jeremy Irons, who brings a bit of substance to everything. My beloved Rachel Weisz is the voice of Saphira, the dragon, and while she's actually a fitting voice for the personality, they don't give her any really good lines. Everything felt as though it was the minimum amount of effort invested to convey the necessary points. For the movie, the screenplay compresses the action and cuts out a few parts, but the movie is decently faithful to the book. On the whole, it was mildly entertaining and it's better to invest two hours into the movie than the two days it takes to read the book.

Sorry if anyone's disappointed -- I was, too.