Mental Meanderings

The Movie vs. The Book - Eragon (rant beware)

I saw the movie Eragon today. I wanted to cry. Seriously. Not because the movie is sad but because my heart was broken. Having just finished reading the book I had really enjoyed the way the story was written. The important elements that gave it class, and emotion, and integrity. I enjoyed the theme and the depth. I enjoyed the play of characters, their various strengths and weaknesses. I enjoyed Eragon particularly because he was young, uncertain, and only just discovering the world.

Today I watched the movie and I wanted to cry. I got very, very angry, distressed, and generally pissed off because all of that was ripped away. There is no integrity in this movie. It is so different from the book as if they grabbed the basics and tossed them in a blender and spat them out in 3D wide screen dolby digital surround.

I can't imagine what Christopher Paolini thinks of the movie. If it had been my book my heart would really be broken. It's made me very aware that if anything I write ever gets taken up to be made into a movie I want a very firm contract in place. I'd want a contact that ensures I am consulted with anything they change that does not match the book. I'd want a final ok to see the movie before it's launched in full with the right to ensure it does not reach the public unless I'm happy that it's a fair adaptation of my book.

I know, perhaps it means I'll never have a book make the big screen. But seriously, there have been many great movies that held true to the integrity of the books they were born of. JK Rowling for the most part seems to be able to generate enough respect that the movies are fair adaptations of her books. JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogies were also very good adaptations. I think Eragon, had it been adapted following the book would have been an incredible movie.

Now my warning to people is. DON'T read the book until AFTER you see the movie. See the movie first. Enjoy the movie as a stand alone and then read the book and have your mind blown by how different, and brilliantly so, the book is. Understand why the movie could not even compare to the book. It's not even the hint of a shadow that the book is.

I feel hurt and disappointed. I feel very let down. I feel like I wasted a good $15 of money because I really did not enjoy the movie. If I had seen it with no idea what the book was about I'd probably have enjoyed it. But as I watched all I could see is this beautiful book being torn to shreds. I watched the characters become empty ghosts of the indepthly beautiful people they really are. I say the brilliant character development Paolini worked across the 500 pages of his book completely obliterated.

*sighs sadly* As a writer this sort of thing makes me afraid and concerned. Where is an artists right to have their work respected? Some would say, "Maybe he doesn't care? Maybe he's just glad to roll in the money and see his name and his title on the big screen?"

I can't imagine that. I can't imagine an impassioned 15 year old who slaved over this incredible story smiling as he watches his title and his name connected with what they made of it. I can't imagine his family, who supported him, published him, promoted him, happy that his prize was decimated. I can't imagine how the people who he acknowledges in the book, the friends and family who helped him edit, and mould the story, might be proud to see it put up there in motion and color.

I know sometimes you just have to let things go. I expect Paolini won't so freely grant the rights to any of his future books, assuming he writes more. As with us all I hope he's accepted this and used it to learn. It's a harsh lesson and I hope it's one I learn only through experiencing it as a 3rd party.

Still, today I am sad. I might go and read the book again in the next few weeks. Hopefully, the brilliant characters and the charming delight and intensity of the story as it should be will remove the tarnish the movie has inflicted. And I'll write, because someday perhaps one of my own books will reach the big screen and portray the element that makes the story, and not the bones that protect the shell.