Doug Walker (TGWTG, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews, and other projects)

I don't follow Doug's Facebook, but did he give some implication on what his general thoughts are?

Rob's thoughts were positive, so I assume Doug feels similarly.

The review of Ducktales 2017 is up. Looks like he really likes it.

Also, the Critic teamed up with Nash to review The Dresden Files TV series.

.... wow. I didn't know this policy existed!

That goes in the Channel Awesome thread.

So they revealed what today's review is gonna be: Eragon. A book and movie I am 100% unfamiliar with.

Saw the movie literally once. Can't remember a thing from it now. What I can remember is that not only did people think it sucked, it apparently deviated from the book in a lot of places.

Apparently Eragon was the widely mocked fantasy movie before Twilight existed.

It's the much worst adaptation of a book that really isn't all that good to begin with

I've seen the movie and read the first book. Neither are great, but the movie had a habit of taking things from the book that could have been impressive...and then changing it to be weird and lame. Like, there's a chunk of the book that's set in a giant city. The movie takes part of that section, tosses the rest, and moves it to a random tiny village in a swamp. I assume it was budget, but it's still a really strange choice to make.

Never read the books myself, but I know it's one of the few (and possibly only) book series my older sister, an avid reader, outright gave up on. Like, halfway through the third book (of four), she just decided it wasn't worth it. This should be interesting.

The movie also forgets to make the dwarves.... dwarves. They are just bearded dudes.

And yeah, the city is like the one cool thing in the book - a city on a mountain inside a larger, hollow mountain with a hole on top

In the movie it's a valley with like 2 huts or something.

The Dom did a lost in adaptation on this.

the book itself is Lord of the Rings meets Harry Potter meets Star Wars except not nearly as interesting as that sound. It's plot points lifted almost verbatim from more famous works, assembled together with new character names.

edited 29th Aug '17 9:44:09 AM by Ghilz

I remember reading Eragon when I was younger, but I never saw the movie. Wasn't interested enough to go see it.

The Dom's Lost in Adaptation episode of Eragon is a pretty good one, especially how he details which changes really did not do the story any favors.

Looking forward to seeing the Nostalgia Critic's take on it. How many Jeremy Irons jokes do you think he'll make?

I've seen Eragon a few times. I thought it was okay. It wasn't amazing but, to me, it was far from the worst movie ever. It's probably because I haven't read the books.

Eragon

Also, there will another live screenings of a review: this time it's the 2017 version of "It", on 4 and 5 October.

edited 29th Aug '17 2:07:21 PM by Motyka5

Eragon was a ripoff of Star Wars. The plot is essentially the same as A New Hope. I remembered watching The Dom's video on it and before he had gotten to the point that it's a Star Wars ripoff, I was already getting to that conclusion from his description of the book's plot.

Also the author was 15 years old and his parents owned a publishing company, that's how his book was published in the first place.

Really? I didn't think he was so young.

My mistake, he was actually 18 when it was first published, although the first draft was written when he was 16.

This is what I get for making a guesstimate instead of making sure to Google first.

Well, if nothing else, I admire him for being able to crank out four brick-sized novels at such a young age - that's legitimately impressive.

I actually have read the books for myself - I enjoyed them when I first read them, though later I soured on them somewhat. They have some cool ideas, but other than that, they don't really have much going for them (and they do have some rather glaring flaws, I think). Still, I don't think they merit the level of derision they get in some circles.

edited 29th Aug '17 8:17:41 PM by KarkatTheDalek

I loved Eragon's brother's arc in book 2, it felt very different and was kind of a breath of fresh air in the midst of a really, REALLY cliche story. But I also never finished the series.

I think you mean his cousin. His brother was someone entirely different, and spends pretty much all of Book 2 completely removed from the plot (which, honestly, was not a very good idea).

His cousin/brother figure, that guy with the infected wound who basically picked up their whole hometown. That plot was Neat.

Yeah, said brother was also much cooler and more compelling than Eragon. As were Arya and Nasuada. Really, any character but Eragon as the main protagonist would have made for a more interesting story.

edited 29th Aug '17 11:02:03 PM by IniuriaTalis

Rob has revealed what movies will be reviewed in September: Green Lantern and Kangaroo Jack. Apparently the latter was particularly rough for him and Doug.