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Greater Basilisk wrote:
It’ll be interesting to see your take. Most people thought it was just bleh, but I really disliked it.
I’ll let you know. I thought the book was only so-so, but I cut him a lot of slack because of his age. It’s not like I can write a book and get it published. I have the 2nd book, but I haven’t read it yet.
That’s the thing. You can’t properly criticize unless you can do it better. I’ll have you know I’m giving it a try. 😀
Greater Basilisk wrote:That’s the thing. You can’t properly criticize unless you can do it better. I’ll have you know I’m giving it a try. 😀
That’s wonderful!!! The best I’ve done is some interactive short stories I did for a Pern-based group a number of years ago. Just garbage really. But I certainly hope you get somewhere with the book!!!
I actually started it as something totally different, but after watching that lousy movie last night I got a whole new idea. I’ll present the first few chapters to this forum for expert criticism. I don’t read much fantasy, so I’m going to need a lot of input. 😀
Greater Basilisk wrote:I actually started it as something totally different, but after watching that lousy movie last night I got a whole new idea. I’ll present the first few chapters to this forum for expert criticism. I don’t read much fantasy, so I’m going to need a lot of input. 😀
I’ll be looking forward to it. 😀
Greater Basilisk wrote:Saphira? She was just as bad. She has fuzz, fur and feathers, bird wings instead of leathery wings, and her headdress is the lamest possible. Admittedly there’s no rules for how dragons look, but what’s so hard about making her interesting, even if the book cover illustrator couldn’t? And if interestingness isn’t possible, they could at least have made her anatomically correct. Her wings didn’t even attach at the shoulder!
Now, I thought Saphira’s design was the BEST thing about the whole movie….
I like the feathers, down and scales – it made her look semi-avian, and not the typical batwinged scaly reptile. Sort of Windstone-ish, dragons with feathered wings 🙂
As for the shoulders… well, I thought her wingshoulders were definitely under-muscled where they attached to the spine, but I don’t think that wings should always attach directly above or onto the forelegs. The way I draw my dragon species, the wing limbs actually attach along the spine further forward than the forelimbs; designing them a bit further back isn’t that bad.
I didn’t think the movie was that great (It’s Dragonriders of Pern without Thread, Lord of the Rings without Mordor and Star Wars without Yoda) but… a lot more likeable than the book, which I am still trying to plug through. It’s a 250-page book, maximum, that has been inexplicably stretched to 500… not that I have a problem with long books, since I really like Stephen King’s The Stand, the Dark Tower series and It – all much longer than Eragon … but it feels so much like WORK reading Eragon! It’s not added high description, because there’s not all that much good descriptive language. It’s not added ‘content’ since much of what’s being said could have been condensed down into about half the length – two or three towns in the first 250 pages instead of six – for pacing. It’s as though there are hundreds of extra words sneaking in there when I’m not looking.
And while I’m talking about it… I started a novel when I was twelve, worked on it until I was seventeen. Lost most of it when I emigrated from the ‘States, and have just the first draft, five hundred pages of longhand in a box in my loft. It’s not fantastic. I started off with no clear idea of plot and dragged people through random and meaningless towns and situations without thinking of pacing or style. I write decent short stories, but my novel isn’t amazing. I know bad writing when I see it, and since this book’s trying to pass itself off as ‘young adult’… it’s not doing a good job of it, regardless of the author’s age (and he was a minimum of nineteen when he finished. Maybe re-reading it as Stephen King – who is my literary favourite – describes in “On Writing” would have done it some good… formula being “Final Draft = First Draft – 10%”)
I thought the movie was OK – maybe not something I’d go see again, since I’ve seen all the ‘source material’ before – but not dire. The book…. is pretty dire.
Quote:That’s the thing. You can’t properly criticize unless you can do it better.
I have to say I disagree with you, since it’s very much possible to be educated about artwork or writing and discuss it intelligently without being able to write or draw/sculpt/paint yourself. It’s just a different but equally-valid type of criticism ^_^
Okay, I guess you’re right. It’s still a good idea to be able to at least show how to do it better, rather than saying “I don’t like it” but being unable to point out any way to improve it.
Greater Basilisk wrote:Okay, I guess you’re right. It’s still a good idea to be able to at least show how to do it better, rather than saying “I don’t like it” but being unable to point out any way to improve it.
I agree that providing a demonstration yourself is an excellent way to help constructively criticize a work. But it’s also possible to learn how to do certain things but not actually be able to do it – in terms of being aware of the materials or steps involved to get a certain artistic result.
A simple example of this, in regards to Eragon, is that many people have suggested that the author needed to do more “Show, don’t tell.” This method of writing is considered a good way to bring the reader into the described world more fully. While not all literary critics can write in that sort of fashion, they do and can recognize when it is being done or not.
I mostly jumped in here because you used the word proper, which I feel is a misleading way to describe one method of criticism ^_^
Writing on a novel too myself, as some of you know, and I just have to say again, should my book ever get that far and someone make something similar out of it THAT WAY (no matter wheter Eragon the book is superb or non superb ) I think I’d go rampaging through the studios and poke my sculpting skalpell into the butts of those incapale … moviemakers. Okay, I’m gonna let the designer of Saphira escape.
The movie is a perfect sample of the “and he twisted round in his grave”. Which brings me back to my old point: What the heck was Paolini doing at the set? was he even there?I just got back from seeing Eragon. My son loved it, but he hasn’t read the book. I think it was well done from a technical standpoint and, to be honest, I liked the dragon. But, having read the book, the story felt too rushed to me; too much was left out. However, they probably did the best they could with the budget and movie time alloted.
starbreeze wrote:I just got back from seeing Eragon. My son loved it, but he hasn’t read the book. I think it was well done from a technical standpoint and, to be honest, I liked the dragon. But, having read the book, the story felt too rushed to me; too much was left out. However, they probably did the best they could with the budget and movie time alloted.
Ha! Answered the question I just asked you!
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