Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings - have changed the way in which fantasy is viewed by movie-goers. Medieval Fantasy was once only genered and geared towards Dungeons & Dragons pen and paper nerds. Since the above two stated movies, fantasy has gone mainstream. It's a crying shame Eragon doesn't live up to the epic storyline as those told in Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
The story takes place on a generic fantasy world where everyone have fantasy based names and lives in caves, dingy windowless palaces, or ramshackle huts. A pretty accurate setting in a Medieval Universe. One day, while out hunting, 17-year old Eragon ( Ed Speleers ) comes across an odd looking stone ( dragon's egg ). He pockets it and, after watching the sun set and dreaming of far away places, his stone does something surprising by cracking open to reveal a cute little dragon. In short order, the small pet becomes big and dangerous. The king of the realm, Galbatorix ( John Malkovich ), who exterminated the dragon riders at the beginning of his reign when he swept away the Old Republic, decides it's not a tradition he wants making a comeback, so he assigns his right hand villian, sorcerer / shade Durza (Robert Carlyle) to handle it. Luckily for Eragon, the village bum, Brom ( Jeremy Irons ), is actually an ex-Dragon Rider. He teaches Eragon the ways of the Dragon Riders. Then, after Eragon's uncle is murdered by Durza's netherworld mauraders, Brom and Eragon go in search of the rebels' secret base. You can pretty much fill in the rest of the blanks.
The storyline background setting is where this movie unfortunately falls flat on it's face. Instead of telling a story where you get to know the character's, the land, the lore in much needed detail, you instead get a bunch of " fantasy's greatest hits " ( short and sweet battles, magic use and dragon strikes, etc. ) strung together without concern for connecting material or character development. Despite its breakneck pace, which should allow an entire tale to be told, the film ends with a cliffhanger. I believe that was thrown in at the end of the movie so a sequel could be added at a later date. But without a concrete well polished, layed out background in the storyline, I don't see how this could be possible... the movie felt fragmented.
It apparently took a worldwide search to "discover" Ed Speleers ( Eragon ) for the title character. Considering the young actor's wooden performance, one has to question the men and women conducting this search. Wasn't Jake Lloyd available? For the most part, I didn't care about Eragon and, on those occasions when I did, it's because I wanted to slap him. Heroic characters should not be annoying. Since Sienna Guillory spends most of the movie sick, in a coma, or otherwise indisposed, it's not fair to judge her performance. ( If there's another movie, no doubt her character will turn out to be Eragon's long-lost sister. At least there's no good luck kiss to conveniently forget.) Perhaps as a form of apology for his foaming at the mouth in Dungeons & Dragons, Jeremy Irons ( ex-dragon rider ) stays low-key as Brom. He achieves the proper level of world weariness mixed with hope for the future. Robert Carlyle ( the sinister shade ) does an excellent impersonation of Brad Dourif's Grima Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings. I found him perfectly suited for the role in which presented himself. John Malkovich ( the evil king ) is in so little of the movie that his role is little more than a glorified cameo. He probably picked up a nice paycheck for a couple days' work.
The dragon on the otherhand was extrodinary. The voice behind the dragon when calm was compassionate and subtle, but when angered the voice would turn harsh and piercing. The computer generated scenes to along with the dragon were just jaw dropping. It's the whole reason I went to see the movie to begin with. I thouroughly enjoyed seeing it in flight and particularly when it breathed fire! Dragons are fasinating mythical creatures.
Somehow, Eragon scored a PG rating, considering the amount of violence and adult content. No fantasy film should be PG. It is impossible to dramatize a war effectively without showing enough grit to elevate the rating to a PG-13. As with Narnia, the neutering of the violence gives the movie's "epic" battle scenes an incomplete, cartoonish feel.
So the movie was worth the price of admission ( $5.00 ) It was an ejoyable dragon romp, but to compare it to the epic proportions of Lord of the Rings, I would say Nay. It doesn't hold a candle to that movie, however the battle scenes with magic were superb! Robert Carlyle ( as the sinister shade ) was by far the best charater of the story and I thouroughly enjoyed his partrayol in the movie. Eragon on the other hand was meh! I think a 17 year old as the main character for this flick to be too young. Should have been someone in thier early 20's. I found it very hard to connect with the character. The dragon goes without saying. One word sums it up. Eyecandy.
I think it's worth watching and maybe even worth owning ( provided you could get a copy free somewhere ) It's worth renting, but not worth buying.
