Star Wars by George Lucas v. The Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini

***Warning: Spoilers for Eragon and Eldest ahead. You have been warned!***

Mr. Rochester recently finished reading the first two books of the Inheritance Trilogy and he remarked how much they mirror Star Wars and LoTR.

Below is a guest posting by Mr. R which lays out the similarities of the original Star Wars and Eragon & Co. The comparisons do give away plot points of the books so please stop reading if spoilers make you cry.

Episode IV: A New Hope – vs. – Book 1: Eragon

Ben Kenobi – vs. – Brom
Old man with mysterious background takes up quiet residence within a farming town and we find out in the second installment that he is keeping an eye on the son of his best friend turned enemy.

Luke Skywalker – vs. – Eragon
Simple, young, farm boy barely out of adolescence who has no knowledge of his parents and has been raised by his uncle and aunt. Something the evil empire wants falls into his backyard and, when the empire comes looking for it and can’t find it, they kill his uncle and burn his home to the ground. The boy then leaves his home and follows the mysterious man through the empire as the old man trains him in the ways of a mysterious power.

The mentor dies. Boy meets up with loner who plays by own rules (Han Solo – Murtagh). The boy saves the princess (Arya) who had been captured by the empire. Boy joins the rebel forces. Boy is involved in huge battle in which he gives the killing blow that decides the outcome of the battle.

Episode V: Empire Strikes Back – vs. – Book 2: Eldest

Yoda – vs. – Oromis

Boy journeys to hidden place where an old teacher exists unbeknown to the empire.

Side story about a “sibling” and their struggle to escape the empire while the rebellion tries to regroup. In the end, the boy battles with another of his kind who reveals to the boy that his unknown father was the man who betrayed the old order and helped the emperor gain control.

The second in command, the right-hand man and the executor for the empire, turns out to be a blood relative of the boy. The boy is wanted captured alive to take before the Emperor but is allowed to escape the clutches of the second-in-command.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – vs. – Book 3: ???

Farm boy and “sibling” work together to recover the “sibling’s” loved one.
Defeat the empire.
Teacher dies?
Turn the second in command to the good side?

–Mr. Rochester, now do you see why I married him?

Beerfest

Friday, on my first date as a married woman, Mr. R took me to see Beerfest. I know that sounds like the most romantic thing in the world to you, but Mr. R knows how to make me laugh. Beerfest is brought to screens everywhere from the minds of Broken Lizard, the ensemble that made Super Troopers and Club Dread.

If you liked Super Troopers, then this movie will not disappoint you. If you, like me, spent almost every weekend of college playing A**hole, Speed Quarters, or Beer Pong, then this movie will definitely not disappoint you.

–Jane, skip you, drink!

All Your Snakes

All Your Base made the rounds among the Nintendo Generation when I was in college. It still makes me laugh. What is not funny about badly translated early video games set to techno music? Nothing!

Except, Snakes on a Plane spoofs. Gentle readers, I give you “All Your Snakes.”

–Jane, you have no chance to survive make your time

Special thanks to eprahs who made this post possible 

Cowabunga, Dude!

Something a little less serious today. The comments on one of my Immersion posts made me think about something I used to love as a kid: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Being the librarian I am, I looked around on the web and was surprised to see that Warner Brothers is releasing a new TMNT movie in March of 2007. I think this is a movie I will have to go see with my brother, for old time’s sake.

I mean, what is not fun about life-size turtles who eat pizza and kick ass?

–Jane, predictably liked Michelangelo

4 Movies and a Weekend

In which I discuss four movies via a Movie Roundup, all spoiler free:

Mr. Rochester and I started the weekend out with Super Troopers, an old favorite full of silly comedy.

On Sunday, we went to see X-Men: The Last Stand with some friends. My gripes are similar to Jenica’s, but overall I thought it was good. I wish that we would have gotten to see more of some of the characters and I ached for others’ plights, but the plot did not leave much room for “how this all makes me feel” development. I think this is the general complaint that I have heard from others. It was still worth the money and apparently many, many other people thought so as well.

I love Jane Austen and have seen, I think, all of the adaptations of her works. Even some of the not so great BBC versions from loooooong ago. The previous statement does not include the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice because we all know that is an achievement in literary transfers to the screen. I am talking more about this. All of this blathering leads to me admitting that I have finally seen the newest version of Pride and Prejudice which came out last year and stars Keira Knightly, Mathew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench, and many others. On the whole, I liked it. The important elements were there and, though Colin Firth will be Darcy forever, I enjoyed Mathew Macfadyen as Darcy. This newest version made great pains to emphasize, in the setting, the gentry farmer quality of the Bennett’s life. There was much less emphasis on letter writing and many of the scenes with Wickham and Charlotte were left out. Sir Lucas as well is completely absent. Regardless, it was worth the money to buy it and will sit proudly next to my other Austen based movies.

Mr. R and I also watched the 40 Year Old Virgin, which was a supreme disappointment. I was expecting something hilarious, like Super Troopers or Saving Silverman, but what I saw was a date movie with a little more sexual “jokes” than normal. While the message is good, “It’s not all about the sex you know,” the movie tried to walk a fine line between cute and funny, failing a little at both.

–Jane, now owns a movie she will never watch again