Why Eragon is NOTHING like ____________

[Just Some Guy]

I'm most familiar with the opera there, but I thought that was between the dwarves and gods rather than elves.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

It's easy to write stuff that's not terribly derivative.

First, scrap the pointless humanoid races, and make your own set. Elves are hippy angel-folk. Dwarves are short scottsmen. You don't need them.

I say, start by making humans seem alien instead of turning human archetypes into inhuman folk. Humans are taller than most races, and HUMANS are inherently magical (Why do you think you need a HUMAN sacrifice as opposed to a dwarf sacrifice or a goat sacrifice and HUMAN blood?), or at least more-so than most species. They're omnivorous. They have the weird hair-not hair thing. Humans are always the plucky heroes, always finding magic swords or becoming wizards.

Let's extrapolate this further. See the human race from the outside. Take everything you've learned about them, and exaggerate it. Get the seventh-hand account tall tale.

Humans are huge. Seven or nine feet tall at least. Humans will eat anything: plant, animal, dead, living, sentient or non, even their own species. They'll try eating rocks, fermented sour milk, droppings, anything. Humans can shoot lightning and move objects with their minds. Every human has a magic power and a fairy relative. Humans will have sex with and concieve children with any species.

Then, make up your races.

...anyone wanna try?

[mrbasehart]

One thing about the commentary that made me pause was the guy's accusation of Eragon borrowing from the Matrix.  Is there really that much? 'cause I really didn't see much. 

[Sideswipe]

Yeah, theres not really a lot of Matrix in this movie.  Except Brom's Matrix-esque jump/kill sword move. 

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I think that The Matrix has just tapped into so many collective nodes of action movie ness, it's hard not to make some links to it when somebody does an improbable fight move or slow motion attack (both of which are genre staples).

[RobtheBarbarian]

The only connection I see to the Matrix is the whole "hidden city nestled in a valley, where the remnants of the Good Guys hide from the overlord" thing.

[Sideswipe]

The only connection I see to the Matrix is the whole "hidden city nestled in a valley, where the remnants of the Good Guys hide from the overlord" thing.

I agree with Hobbit on this point.  It seems more like some sort of hidden rebel base than a last bastion of human civilization to me.

[Indomitus]

Actually, the biggest connection to Matrix is stylistic.  Matrix changed how action movies are made, and how they look, and Eragon followed that with a number of incredibly improbable fight scenes.
The connections don't have to be in the narrative itself.

[Nunyerbiz]

Personally, I'm shocked that a lesser author and/or movie would borrow from more successful authors and/or movies in an attempt to make a quick buck. I don't think that's ever happened before.

OF COURSE IT'S DERIVATIVE SLOP!!! Why is anybody wasting their countdown to carpal tunnel syndrome by bothering to type about it?!?

Nobody would have cared if the movie was the worth the DVD it was burned on... being a "rip off" artist never draws much ire if you're good at it.

Damn... now my wrists are starting to hurt... freakin wasted character typing!

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Alright then. It's a bad copy of a bad copy.

There is, however, a lot of stuff that gets praise for being, original, unheard of, dynamic. "Labyrinth" is a good example of this, as is Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere".  Creativity is not dead.

[Nunyerbiz]

Oh, don't get me wrong... I wasn't trying to say that creativity is dead and we should all just accept it. I'm just saying that it was pretty obvious from the get-go that Eragon was going to be shamelessly derived from better works. It just reeked from it the moment I saw the first TV spot.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Ah yes, well, that is true. However, it was still more mediocre and derivative than I would have predicted.

[Principal_Skin-trade]

You know that part where Eragon comes home to find his UNCLE dead and he is told by his dragon not to go home because it's "too dangerous",  that is not at all like that scene in Star Wars where Luke goes home to find his UNCLE and aunt dead and was just told by a wise man that it is "too dangerous".

[Wild Eep]

I don't mind a good retelling of an old story. 

But this is utter crap.