Plot Young farmer Eragon (Speleers) finds a dragon’s egg, and teams up with the newborn dragon, Saphira (Weisz), a former Dragon Rider (Irons) and a hot female Elf (Guillory) to tackle an evil king (Malkovich).
Review
The next time a dragon movie script lands in Jeremy Irons’ lap, he should throw the goddamn thing out the window because, after this lifeless monster and the risible Dungeons & Dragons, it’s clear that winged beasts and he don’t mix. And yet he’s still the best thing in Eragon, which may have something to do with having the good sense to check out early.
If you think that’s a spoiler, it really isn’t, because Eragon is a derivative and damp re-spin of all those old fantasy epics that owe a debt to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero Of A Thousand Faces. It often feels like a cheap Vegas Star Wars tribute act, albeit with a dragon playing the Millennium Falcon. Want a wet-blanket blond farmboy hero? You got it. Hell, he even has a disposable uncle and a sunset to mope at. How about a wise old wizard who sets our hero on the path to power before pegging it? Yep, that’s here too. A feisty princess who gets imprisoned early on and has to be rescued? Take a wild guess.
It’s easy to lay all the blame at the door of Christopher Paolini, who wrote the source novel when he was 15 — and it shows. But it’s director Stefen Fangmeier who’s the real culprit. A former ILM FX supervisor, his first directing job betrays his origins, as he shows more interest in the CG dragon, Saphira (a passable, but not photo-real achievement) than he does in conjuring a fresh take on fantasy. This is the sort of movie where you know the villain (John Malkovich) is evil because he broods on his throne in a dark, cavernous room. Plot holes abound, and it’s moribund visually; if it weren’t for the number of sweeping shots of blokes barrelling along on horseback, the movie would be 18 minutes long.
As for Fangmeier’s treatment of his non-CG actors, they’re hung out to dry with type-this-shit-but-you-can’t-say-it dialogue like, “Taste the blood of your dragon!” Malkovich became a parody of himself long ago, but it’s hard not to feel a shiver of pity for Robert Carlyle, who seems to be fighting the urge to sack his agent through every soul-crushing scene. As for Edward Speleers, the Brit newcomer in the title role, he’s game enough, but sadly also pretty gormless, his blank stare multi-tasking furiously as it brings us barely discernible variations on happy, sad and heroic.
Ultimately, with a human hero it’s impossible to invest in and a CG dragon that doesn’t invite awe (it doesn’t help that Rachel Weisz phones in her turn as Saphira’s voice), Eragon just doesn’t catch fire. Kids may love it, and it may do big business, but let’s hope not, because that may be the only thing that can stop the sequel from spreading a dark and terrible shadow over this once proud and prosperous land.
Verdict Technically competent, but essentially a fantasy movie that mistakes industrial light for magic. As dragon movies go, Dragonslayer, Reign Of Fire and even Dragonheart can rest easy.
It's a shame that his wonderful book gets harsh views alongside the film, because basically the film and the book differ hugly. The director here started the film well, with promise that maybe the film would be faithful to the book in a good way. But five minuets later, the film steemed full speed ahead, cutting out charactors, places and entire sections of the novel. The thing that is sad about this film is it had great potential; Ed Speelers really captured the role of Eragon well, publicly pr... Read More
every time i heard the dragon,s voice i wanted to puke
i had a few laughs in it because it was so crap,like this is an example of how much ihate it,a few months after i seen i saw a child at movie store saying to their mom that he wanted to buy it, i just went over to him and explained to him how crap it was,thats how much i hate it. ... Read More
I so hope that Christopher Paolini didn't have much to do with this movie or if he did, it was because of some complicated copyrights-contracts legal stuff, and at least was completely embarassed and disgusted with the outcome. This movie is utterly and mercilessly bad, incoherent, incomprehensible and very sad to watch for any fan of "Inheritance". Scenes are unconnected, plot confusing and confused, and the characters trot around Alagaesia as if it was the size of Tooting, appearing ... Read More
Where did it go wrong? This film had a lot of potential. The book was very good, even if it did borrow a lot from Star Wars. I was hoping that this film would be just as enjoyable, but no, it is one of the most boring, badly made films I have ever seen.
The films adaptation starts out okay, but the film is still horribly boring at this point. From then on it just gets worse. At one point about 200 pages of the book are compressed into about 5 minutes. Equally strange is how Eragon becomes a ma... Read More
It does have flickers of promise, and certainly has some nice scenery, but the script is just the worst I've heard in a long time. What about plot? or character? Has this film heard of the term. One star for the landscapes and visual effects alone. But the rest is terrible, though oddly passable on a rainy day. ... Read More
Who the fuck allowed this to be made!!? seriously!! shit, crap, horendous - these are all compliments!! not even jeremy irons can save this terriable, terriable 'film'!!! ... Read More
Who the fuck allowed this to be made!!? seriously!! shit, crap, horendous - these are all compliments!! not even jeremy irons can save this terriable, terriable 'film'!!! ... Read More
''There was a time when the fierce and beautiful land of Alagaësia was ruled by men astride mighty dragons. To protect and serve was their mission, and for thousands of years, the people prospered. But the riders grew arrogant, and began to fight among themselves for power. Sensing their weakness, a young rider named Galbatorix betrayed them, and in a single bloody battle, believed he had killed them all, riders and dragons alike. Since then, our land has been ruled by Galbatorix. He crushe... Read More
I did go to the flicks to see this, and did not expect anything more than a decently enjoyable movie. I personally like some of the crappier fantasy fare, the idle escapism and all that. Dragon films are usually the better ones. (Dragonheart is actually one of the better fantasy films of the '90's - so why that dig at it there?)
What I got from Eragon was exactly what I expected, it was entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable every moment Jeremy Irons was on screen. ... Read More
Classic
Excellent
Good
Fair
Tragic
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