Thursday, January 04, 2007

Bland dragon fantasy film ‘Eragon’ is all smoke, no fire

By A.J. Fox, The Dartmouth Senior Staff

If you took the Lord of the Rings trilogy, peppered it with liberal helpings of Narnia, Harry Potter and any number of other big fantasy epics, then turned the whole concoction upside down and shook it until every last spark of creativity came tumbling out, the result might look more than a little bit like “Eragon.” In an age when the grandeur of fantasy films is limited only by the imaginations of their creators, here is a movie made without the scarcest hint of inspiration or originality. “Eragon” feels so derivative that to note that is also atrociously bad seems almost beside the point. It’s worse than bad — it’s bland. More »

J.T. impresses, The Who digresses: the best and worst of ‘06

By Caitlin Kelly, The Dartmouth Senior Staff

While top 10 lists are a nice way to try to summarize a year, no one seriously believes that they accurately reflect the entire gamut of music. With so many genres and artists to encapsulate, they barely scratch the surface. On that note, the following eight albums met the randomly set benchmark of being a surprise, pleasantly so in the first four cases and disappointingly so in the last. Give them a listen to hear last year at its best and worst. More »