bad?

warning: super-long babbling ahead.



not good.

okay so the thing is, i caught it yesterday together with the ngiauchi po and zhan wei. i've already heard it was pretty bad; but since that review came from someone who's already read the book, i presumed it's probably coz reading the book first always spoils it for the movie (i have never seen a perfect adaptation). so, never having read the book myself, i went on in and tried to enjoy myself.

bloody disappointing. not in adaptation terms, since i probably have no say in that.. but as a movie in general? just plain bad. okay, fine, maybe we should give stefen fangmeier as much credit as he deserves since it is his first movie after all.. but even so! to put it simply.. let's just say i was glad i watched it on movie day where tickets only cost rm5.

in general, the film leaves a lot to be desired. okay, maybe i am a tad fussy in deciding my kinda fave movies coz i'm a stickler for perfection in terms of pictures and plot development and all that shite.. and i have pretty extreme tastes at times.. but this. really. it's just too much.

picture-wise.. o_O a lot of unnecessary shots. wasting a lot of time there when they could've gone for plot development instead. i especially hated the scenes with eragon and brom riding towards the varden. so-fckn-many shots of just them riding! the only difference between those shots were just different angles.. what's more, different angles of more or less the same environment! wtf. if you're trying to show a super long journey through many places, show la those different places! all that could be seen were mountains and grass plains that pretty much looked similar. i mean, to any ordinary moviegoer, you'd just think it's all about the same thing. oh, and not forgetting the fact that it looks a lot like lotr, but a superbly bad copy. that aerial wraparound shot of the riders on the horses especially.. and that's only my view of those shots. apparently the whole movie has been perceived of as that too. see here.

in terms of story.. i have nothing to say. it's just very disappointing.. coz i think it could have been SO much better. once again, unnecessary shots.. some not even needed to enhance the story; while the ones that are actually needed they either didnt put in or made it faster. to put it simply, the whole thing just looks very rushed. like a bad case of editing last minute and just dumping whatever you got in it.. and only after submitting your work you realize how much better you could've made it. haha..

however, i didnt hate the whole thing lah.. to give the film due, i think the visual effects are pretty awesome for such a crappy film. but then again, maybe i'm not a visual effects expert (nor do i claim i am one in the other fields too lah, i just happen to prefer certain aspects in those fields so if those aspects arent fulfilled, in my own very personal view, it sucks). so, as an ordinary visual effects watcher, i'd say they were pretty good. i mean, come on, from the team who gave us jar jar binks and the one that did all those super stuff for lotr.. i hardly say we should expect anything less hehe.. i might be biased tho coz i'm a fan of weta digital since i saw the making of lotr hehe..

all in all? bad. only visual effects was okay. haha.. my personal view is that that was probably the part that director fangmeier focused on more since he was, after all, previously visual effects director for films like saving private ryan and lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events. heheh..

so.. what i think is.. if you really wanna learn tips on what not to put in a film, watch this one. i know that's a pretty bold statement for me to make, but i really think so! you dont have to be a film expert to know it.. all you have to do is just watch and you'll realise.

haha fck. i'm so mean. i just hope karma wont come back at me where my films in the future (that's me crossing my fingers and praying really hard i might even do those) would turn out as bad, if not worse. ehehe.. so maybe i shall just stop here with the dissing.

anyway.. christmas is around the corner. i want either this..



or any of the others in the series. there's also 'create', 'pause', 'begin', 'dream', and 'think'. now, tell me. who wouldnt want 'em?! ehehehe..

@ 9:56 AM