So I went to see Eragon today, after reading the book about a year or so ago.

This is visually a very impressive movie. The dragon is easily the most realistic looking and beautiful creature that I have seen recently. There are some really amazing scenes with regards to special effects (the fights with the dragons is wonderful, for instnace).

There are several problems with this movie, every now and then a character says something that is cliche that I cringe ("We can do it, together!", etc), or acting in a completely stupid way (but he is 17, he is allowed).

The bigger problem is that there is about an hour of missing scenes in the movies. The hero goes from being a hubmle farm boy to a dragon rider in a matter of 10 minutes or so, and the dragons grows from the size of a dog to the size of your house in a matter of seconds. There is very little character development, and there is a lot of plot missing.

I went to see Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire, since I thoroughly enjoyed the books. I'm in two minds about the movie, though.

The good things about it is that it's a beautiful movie, the scenes are breath-takingly beautiful, and the atmosphere is just right for each and every scene. It really put life into some of the scenes in the book. The dragon flight was especially amazing.

The bad things about it is that it has cut about 50% of the book's plot, including a lot of stuff that you probably need to understand if you haven't read the book. It gets worse because the scenes just jump from one scene to another, with little or no connection. This was especially jarring since I did read the book, and things that should've happened didn't happen.

I understand the limitations on a movie's length, but I just don't think that the movie does the book justice. And I can't help but wonder how much would be cut from the new movies, which are even longer than the first four.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the movie I wanted to see on Wendsday (we ended up going to Wallace & Gromit), so we went to see it today. And it was a delight. I read the book a long time ago, and while the movie doesn't try to stick to the book (Willi Wonka was not neurotic in the book), it does a very good job in keeping the general of the shape in order and amusing me.

The movie is just hilarious, it's funny in the ordinary sense, and Jhonny Depp has some great quotes that truly flattened me. Beyond that, it's also a delight to the eyes, which colors and sights everywhere. It has some very sticky parts (Charlie & his familiy, Wonka & his dad) that I didn't really like, but I guess that they were a must in such a movie.

I was thoroughfully entertained, to the displeasure of some people there. I'm a pretty big guy, and I've a... big laugh, apperantly. Along with an uncommon sense of humor (I laugh at places others do not, that is), it seems to bother some people.

We ended up seeing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in Cinema City. It is a gret movie, there are all sorts of little things that makes it really funny. The dog is just the funniest character in a whole set of ridiculous characters. It look like a children movie, but it was one of the few movies that I actually liked this year.

To celebrate my newfound freedom I've had a two days marathon of the six Star Wars movies. I've never seen the recent batch, and the last time I saw the old Star Wars movies was when I was ~11.

I was certainly entertained, but I don't understand all the big noise around it. The plot normal SciFi one, designed to show off as many special effects as possible. Some of the things in the movies that really bothered me are:

• Blatant disregard of the laws of physics - I'm not talking about what they are doing with the Force, I'm talking about ignoring such things as gravity and failing to explain how this is done.
• Being a Jedi sucks -  You get a cool weapon, a sucky job and you are not allowed to form attachments. Sorry, this doesn't work on a large scale if you are dealing with sentient beings. In addition to that, considering that the Force is supposed to be inherited trait, forbidding the Jedi from marrying & having children would cull the ability out.
• Androids are just plain weird - I can accept a robot that has emotions, Asimov did it very successfully. What I can't accept is a robot that show fear of pain, can't create a decent backup to save its life and in general acts like a human in a steel skin.
• Anakin's virgin birth - Yuck! Did they have to put that stuff there?
• Holes in the plot you can drive the Entreprise through.

The special effects are spectaculars, and the way the renewed the original movies is amazing, the only visible difference is that the battles' choreography, which is much reduced in the original movies.

All in all, what was all that noise about?

I don't usually go to horror movies, and after seeing this one, I know why.
It's a good movie in the sense that I jumped in all the right places, and I was really tense most of the movie. And now that I'm out of there I don't think I'll have trouble sleeping etc.

However, I don't think that I'll be able to see someone sticking out their tongue and not shudder for the next few days.