Review of Eragon (2006) by Jonny B — 01 Sep 2012

For director Stefen Fangmeier, his adaption of the popular Eragon book is one with bags of potential, however one which doesn't live up to standards.

Eragon (Ed Speelers) is a young man who stumbles across a rare dragon egg; as it hatches he soon bonds with the creature and realises they can contact each other through their thoughts (Rachel Weisz voices the dragon). When a former dragon rider named Brom (Jeremy Irons) hears of this, he seeks a sign of hope for the future and volunteers as Eragon's mentor. Brom must prepare Eragon for his destiny, making him the powerful dragon rider that can free the innocents from the clutches of merciless ruler Galbatorix (John Malkovich).

To be honest, while Eragon isn't too good, it's hardly as bad as you may think.

Ed Speelers' performance was solid - not abysmal.

Jeremy Irons and the voice of Rachel Weisz provided a nice assistance to Speelers.

Robert Carlyle was excellent in the role of Galbatorix's menacing pawn Durza.

However, overall Eragon was bland piece of film making which is disappointing because the book was apparently longer and more complex. It's a rather lacklustre story which appears to only cover the basic points of Eragon's tale rather than attempting to develop them.

Also, due to the fact Robert Carlyle was the best of the cast in their roles, it's frustrating he wasn't given more screen time; Carlyle's Durza really impressed me with his often creepy portrayal of the character - a great choice for the villain.

Eragon has the potential to be good - great even - but its let down by a poor retelling of the novel which fails to grasp our attention for much of the duration.