Eragon fails to impress

Today Greg and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We started it with a trip to the beach, then dinner and then we went to the movies. We just got home from seeing Eragon. If you loved the books, if you thought the books were amazing and could not have been better, DON'T SEE THE MOVIE!!

It was a very, very, very, VERY poor rendition of what it could have been. So much was missed out that was needed and too much had been changed. The gedwey ignesia was not a shining sliver circle on his palm, no, it was a thin red dragon on the side of his hand. It glowed red. The reason for it being silver in the first place is because he is called Argetlam throughout the books. It means "shining palm" or "silver palm".

I have many bones to pick, as Greg will when he finishes reading the first book.

The movie actually started off well. I thought "Yay, this is gonna be great." About a quarter of the way through the movie, I was already not impressed. The first thing that got me was Saphira's wings. In the book they are normal dragon wings, hard edges, membrane skin. She has feathered wings, like a bird, in the movie.

Almost every scene with Brom in it was less spectacular than the book. So many things were changed, the worst example was Brom's death. He was supposed to die fighting the Ra'zac, but instead was killed by Durza. (Sorry if I'm giving away plot points. Don't read if you don't want to know). In the book, Brom never reached Durza in Gil'ead. He was entombed on a cliff near a cave after he died from the wound the Ra'zac left him. Saphira turned his tomb into a diamond vault of sorts, with elaborate decoration and a large spiral to top it off, not a rock shape monument as in the movie.

The Urgals were human!
Eragon was too old! 15 not 17!
Brom was too young.
The dwarves were not dwarves.
The battle scene with the Varden was not set up at all.
Arya was flirting with Eragon!
They didn't cross half the terrain they should have (a small thing, I know)
They missed all the important lead ups to the next book.

And the battle with Durza............

Eragon was supposed to struggle, really struggle and he was not supposed to walk away unscathed. The second book, Eldest, is centered around the injury he was supposed to obtain from Durza.

What will Eragon's reason be to go to Ellesmera to receive his training if not the injury?

Now I know what you might be saying, "It's just a movie, it's only based on the book". I know that, and I know that if you hadn't read the books, it may have been a somewhat decent movie, but I am sick and tired of Hollywood ruining good books. Either do it like the book or call it something else. Expectations become too high, otherwise.

Since I've had a bitch about the bad aspects, I will tell you that the scene where Saphira kidnaps Eragon, when the Ra'zac are heading for his house, is done well. In that aspect they really captured Saphira's desperation to protect him, to get him out of there and away from harm. I was also impressed with baby Saphira. So cute! Unfortunately, her growth from toddler, so to speak, and adult, happened in the blink of an eye, almost literally, and it was not even done well.

Another thing I was impressed with was Durza himself. They captured him well. The character was amazing.

I wonder, as Greg pointed out, how Paolini feels about this movie...

Feelin' hot, hot, hot... Fire update!

I got a call from my friend Rhiannon today. She told me to be on alert as the fires were heading towards Morwell and Traralgon. She's a CFA member so she knows what she's talking about.

Anyone reading this (those of you in the Morwell, Traralgon area) make sure you are aware of the things you want to take with you and have them close by. Within the next couple of days, if the fire proceeds the way it is, we will be put on high alert and within a week it could move to possibly evacuating parts of Morwell and Traralgon. The fire is moving fast and is burning up a LOT of precious forest land. Considering the heat and how dry it is, once it hits the open areas, we can expects a much bigger and scarier blaze.

Make sure you have places to go if evacuation becomes necessary and alert those who may not know about what's happening. It doesn't pay to be stupid.

Long time no see

Hi. How's things? It's been a while. Sorry about that.

I moved out of my home in Moe into a house in Morwell with Gregory. Therefore I have not had access to the internet because I had to get it disconnected and then eventually get it on here at the new place. That finally happened yesterday, so I thought maybe I should actually update some things. I hadn't even looked at my emails for over a week. The last time was a quick check once I'd finished work. When I finally did, I had 45 messages and most were from family. Whoops.

I'm here, now. If that helps any.

Since my last post, I have moved out of home, as I said and it was a pretty big job. I never realised that one girl could accumulate so much stuff. I shocked myself. I think I'm finally moved in.

I went to the Werribee Open Range Zoo with Katie, which was pretty cool. I still like the Melbourne Zoo better, though... Although Werribee was all open and you could walk amongst the animals, there just wasn't as much to see and we actually weren't there for long, whereas we spent almost all day at the Melbourne one. Still I got some really nice photos Here is a few...


The meerkats were really cool. Katie made me... okay, not actually MADE me.... take heaps of photos of them. At one point, a group of them actually ran up to where we were standing and were sitting in front of the glass, about twelve of them, and it was so cool. It was like they were posing for us.

In Werribee Zoo, just before the Hippo enclosure, there were all these fake hippos set into the ground, like a fake natural setting. It looked really cool. Water was spraying everywhere, too. It was unexpected. We got wet.

The Cheetas were beautiful. The first time we went to see them they were sleeping. When we came back after the Safari tour, they were prowling around and when we got there, they began to prowl near the glass; we got some great shots. Really close ones.

After the Zoo, we traveled into Werribee to see my Auntie Kerrie. She wasn't home when we got there so we decided to go see her boyfriend Colin who is a Police Officer. He was out in a car when we got there so we abandoned that and headed back to their house to see Kerrie was home yet. She wasn't. We went for a walk and she still wasn't back when we got back and I said to Katie in passing that it would be funny if Kerrie had gone out for tea with workmates or something, not knowing we were here.

Deciding to go for another walk, we left my car outside their place and walked up to the local shopping center. They live in an estate called Manor Lakes in Werribee and it has its own small shopping center. While we were in the newsagency, talking to the really cool people working there, Colin called me on my mobile. He'd seen my car there and wanted to know where we were. In the end, he came and picked us up from the shopping center, wearing full police uniform, to my and Katie's delight, and drove us home in his unmarked police car. He wouldn't let us touch anything, though.

We had the option of staying there at their place or going shopping at Werribee Plaza. Werribee Plaza is the size of Mid Valley and Traralgon Plaza combined... and extended. It goes on for ages. It is a very long plaza.

While we were there, Kerrie called us and we met her for coffee and cake. It was so great to meet up with her. I miss her a lot when we don't see each other. She reminds me so much of my nana.

The next day Katie and I went on a Warehouse shopping trip with her mum and one of her sisters. Some of those places were not cheap. UFO was very expensive, so was the Christmas shop we went to and the toy one as well. The toys were cheaper at Big W.

The next day I went to Cowarr Weir with my GFS group and church. It was fun. I got sunburned on my shoulders.

The NEXT day I left for my five day holiday in Lakes Entrance. That was Monday the 27th of November. We got back the 1st. I really needed that holiday. I got a really nice tan, too. Katie, my mum, my sister and me were the only ones to go. We packed that much into those 5 days it was great. Paddle boats, swimming (pool and beach), Buchan Caves, shopping, Mini Golf(4 rounds of it), BBQ's, a dolphin cruise (no dolphins in sight), coffee in one of the nice (but very expensive) restaurants, lunch at the Lakes Entertainment Center and the RSL, quite a few walks, we got stalked by a swan and its two signets, a couple of stops at the info center, a shell museum tour and that's all I can think of right now. We just relaxed. It was great.

Work hadn't been that great for me lately so it was very important that I go on that holiday. Now I'm back and refreshed. Work may just benefit from that.