MovieChat Forums > Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008) Discussion > For those of you who saw this garbage bu...

For those of you who saw this garbage but never read the books

posted 16 years ago by souio
22 replies | jump to latest

Please give the books a chance. Almost all of the horrible reviews were from fans of the books themselves, and half of the critic reviews say that their children could write stories/characters better than the one that they saw in the film. But the books themselves have very memorable characters and, while it does have its share of clichés, is a fast paced and entertaining read. I just hope they get someone who's a great fan of the books (or me :P) to direct the next one.. or to do a remake of this one - we all know it desparately needs one.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] skoobaba 16 years ago

I read the books actually. The first trilogy. Didn`t impress me at all, to be honest. Was just an attempt at marketing roleplaying books, really. Not saying the books were terrible, or anything. But they were far from great.

[–] 13tongimp 15 years ago

Yeah, they were juvenile-ish Tolkien ripoffs. I was quite bored by the books.

The movie though, was horrible and obviously an attempt to make a series out of it. You could see the bad cuts where commercial breaks were meant to air, and the animation was terrible...the acting even worse. Wow, this was bad.

I mean, the books weren't horrible, just pedestrian. The movie was just bad.

http://www.13tongimp.com/

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] 13tongimp 15 years ago

Well, they were work for hire books. If you enjoyed them, fine....I am not going to judge you for that. I enjoy plenty of mediocre works because I experienced them when I was young and didn't know better. It doesn't make them great works.

http://www.13tongimp.com/

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] morgan-j-billings 9 years ago

I can guarantee that you don't really know what your talking about. The impact on the genre of fantasy role play that those three books had alone is monumental. Also the fact that you imply that a younger audience doesn't know better about what is good and what is not is a sign that you do not understand marketing. I have read everything from sonnets and plays from the ancient Greeks to the modern novel and can honestly say that everything has a place regardless of individual preferences. My preferences lead me to enjoy works like the Glass Bead Game and The Wheel of Time more than some others such as Tolkiens work however I would not deny the importance of his piece of fantasy. Regardless your post infuriated myself because of the immaturity in your understanding and the way you disregard a body of work. The movie however was terrible.

[–] andydevonport 15 years ago

Its subjective, I read the books when I was a kid and they were one of my first introductions into the Fantasy genre, so I absolutely adore them.
The film, well Im sorry I couldn't watch it all, it was horrible, it started to turn good memories bad.

I don't agree that Hollywood should leave books alone, because no amount of CGI, great acting or directing will ever usurp the pictures painted by the imagination.

But I felt love them or hate them, such an iconic series as Dragonlance, deserved so much better.

[–] dfunkt_jestr 15 years ago

Wholeheartedly agree. Could not have put it better.

[–] lord_sargas93 15 years ago

I agree 100%. I've read most of the old Dragonlance books, and Dragons of Autumn Twilight and its following novels were excellent. This movie was ok if you just want something on for noise while you are putting together a book shelf or something, but otherwise, not so much.

http://targoth.com

[–] millsy-uk 15 years ago

Magician and the Riftwar saga are much better books.

[–] nymvonamiel 11 years ago

Agree. I wish someone would film a mini-series based on the Riftwar saga.

[–] lordcolin88 15 years ago

I think people are being a little harsh about this movie. Yes the movie has serious flaws, but just to see such an enjoyable part of my childhood in some form of movie format was worth the five dollars I had to part with to rent it. To anyone who has seen this movie and not read the books, read them as they will be a joy to you that you can not even imagine.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] kiotene_torris 15 years ago

I don't know what the problem is - I liked the movie - and I read the books before. Three times.

[–] pfhyre 15 years ago

To be honest, the first trilogy doesn't hold up as well for me if I ignore my own nostalgia. The second, however, is much better in my opinion.

[–] Madcap2112 11 years ago

The first trilogy was a weekend diversion, nothing more. Hardly greatness. Better than the lifeless Drizzt books, anyway. IMO, Dragonlance, and all TSR/WOTC novels are derivative Tolkien knock-offs. Amusing if you can wade through them, but there is ten times more original fantasy out there that doesn't reuse all of Tolkien's races and tropes (Malazan, Ice and Fire, Kingkiller, once i'd have added wheel of time to this list but i've realized that it's just not as good as i thought it was ten years ago). Anymore if i'm gonna read about Elves and Dwarves it'll be Tolkien, not it's third cousin twice-removed. Might as well read Shanarra (And Dragonlangs beats Shannara hands down!).

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?
~Groucho Marx

[–] Paladinlover 10 years ago

To be honest, I tried to read some of the books. At least about three, and I just couldn't stomach them. I mean they literally made my eyes hurt and almost put me to sleep. The characters were... unlikable at best, and the descriptions, while rich and abundant, get really boring after a while and just info dump far too often.

I'm not saying that they're terrible. If they were, they wouldn't be so popular, but I really found it too boring and soulless for my taste. I felt like they were a DnD session written down.

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

by souio » Fri Sep 26 2008 19:42:52 Flag ▼ | Reply |
IMDb member since May 2005
Please give the books a chance. Almost all of the horrible reviews were from fans of the books themselves, and half of the critic reviews say that their children could write stories/characters better than the one that they saw in the film. But the books themselves have very memorable characters and, while it does have its share of clichés, is a fast paced and entertaining read. I just hope they get someone who's a great fan of the books (or me :P) to direct the next one.. or to do a remake of this one - we all know it desparately needs one.

I did. Several times. I bought the oversized trade paperback with the first three books, and I could not get through the first chapter.

[–] Bernnard_Black 10 years ago

They're okay. I read them when the first came out when I was a kid, and while they aren't in the same league as Tolkien or the first couple of Shannara books (which went rapidly downhill after the second), they're still an entertaining read. Kind of that fun summer reading, when you don't want to have to work too hard at it. I've long held that there are three kinds of fiction books; those that are well written, those that tell a good story, and those that do both. These books fall into the middle category; they tell a fun adventure story, but aren't particularly well written. Would be neat to see someone who's really a strong writer take the same story and characters and run with it.

The best thing these books did was introduce some pretty great characters, particularly the brothers Majere. I remember reading an interview way back with Weise and Hickman and they were shocked to find out how popular Raistlin turned out to be.

Great books? No. Fun popcorn type reads? Sure, absolutely.

Here's to the health of Cardinal Puff.

[–] Snakebite24 8 years ago

The Movie looks like a crappy Hanna-Barbera cartoon lol