Eragon

I won't waste a whole lot of time on this, basically because it so bad. Having read both of Christopher Paolini's books in the Inheritance series, Eragon and Eldest, I had high hopes for this film because the novels are so well-crafted. Yes, it does borrow many traditional elements from the fantasy genre, and many probably pass these books off as LotR ripoffs, but if you can get beyond that they are great stories...

The film, however, is a stinking pile of shit. It was obviously thrown together, and so many details from the books are glossed over or completely omitted. Yes, condensing a complex story full of characters is par for the course, but Peter Jackson proved that you can make good movies faithful to the books that satisfy even the most hard-core fans. Eragon the movie is not even 1hr 45 minutes, and all the corners cut really make the film disjointed. Even the decent special effects can't save it, and the dragon with Rachel Weisz's voice is plain irritating.

Remember when special effects absolutely blew us away and could compensate for a weak plot? I'll never forget how awe-inspired I was by the liquid morphing in Terminator 2 or the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park...
Now, we as a viewing audience want it all...effects must be accompanied by a decent story, otherwise you'll just have a corny, computerized movie, a modern-day version of the sci-fi B movie of the 70s. I blame it on the Star Wars prequels (I caught a few minutes of the Phantom Menace on HBO the other day and was painfully reminded of this reality).

So, read the Eragon books, and if you must see the movie, wait until they show it on the Sci-Fi channel or something...shouldn't be long before it gets there...

1.5 out of 5 Stars

Blood Diamond

For some reason I wasn't dying to see this film, despite the positive reviews and Oscar buzz this generated early on in its release. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised by this pic, a fairly straight-forward look at the bloody and brutal violence that beset West Africa in the late 1990s. Set in Sierra Leone, Leonardo DiCaprio is a South African arms dealer who catches wind of an enormous pink diamond rumored to have been found in a diamond mine run by ruthless rebels and populated by slaves. Worth millions, DiCaprio sets forth to manipulate everyone around him to get his hands on the diamond in order to secure his own future and get the hell out of Africa once and for all.

The plot is decent, and the performances by DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou are great (both received Oscar nods this morning). While the journey in the film is essentially DiCaprio's character coming full circle to embrace Africa and hopefully do the right thing, the story sheds light on how poor nations rich in natural resources can disentegrate into such brutal inhumane warfare so quickly. Whether it be diamonds in Angola and Sierra Leone or oil in Nigeria, we see how global commerce in commodities can rip societies apart to benefit the needs of Western consumers. Having read a lot about Sierra Leone and the tactics used by rebels and government alike during this era, I was happy to see this brought to light in a big Hollywood pic. Parallels to the current situation in Darfur, Sudan right now are clear (genocidal violence aimed at innocent men, women and children without the diamond angle).

DiCaprio's odd stab at a South African accent isn't even as annoying as I thought it would be...he seems to pull it off, and his character is completely believable. Well worth a watch...

3.5 out of 5 Stars