Review of Eragon (2006) by Adam F — 03 Aug 2014

Eragon (2006).

Rating: 2/5.

"Eragon" is notorious for being a bad fantasy adventure movie, but in all honestly it isn't all that terrible as much as it's just so mediocre that it leaves no impact on its audience whatsoever. It's all set in Middle Earth... I mean a fantasy world called Alagaësia, home to humans, elves, dragons and dwarves. Actually there aren't many dragons because years ago, wizard-knight dragon riders were common but they were all betrayed by one of their own. The evil Galbatorix (John Malkovich) killed all the dragons and their riders and became the evil Emperor, I mean King of the country. Our hero is Luke SkyPotter... I mean Dragon... I mean Eragon (Ed Speleers), a 17-year-old boy who finds a mysterious stone stolen from Galbatorix by Princess Leia, I mean Arya (Sienna Guillory). The stone turns out to be a dragon's egg, which hatches. Eragon and his dragon Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weisz) meet with Obi-Wan Kenobi... I mean Brom (Jeremy Irons) who informs him that he's the only one that can save the kingdom!

This movie has an... uncanny resemblance to "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings", with a dash of "Harry Potter". It becomes really obvious when you start looking at the characters and the way they act. Eragon is a simple fella who discovers he's super awesome and is destined to become the great hero the land has been asking for. Not because of anything that he's done in the past, or any skills that he's been honing, because he's destined to be so. Arya is the intended love interest who comes from royalty and needs to be rescued by Eragon. Brom is the wise old sage who will teach our young hero everything he knows. The bad guy is one who has fallen from the ranks of the good dragon knights and has now taken control of the entire galaxy, I mean world. These similarities aren't necessarily bad, but then the story comes off as incredibly similar as well. A tragedy means that Eragon is forced to leave his hometown and go on a hero's quest. Meanwhile that old guy, who he didn't take seriously, turns out to be a powerful wise man. He's reluctant at first but eventually gets the training he needs. It makes the story incredibly predictable and kind of dull, particularly during the middle. From a visual standpoint, the movie just feels like a lamer version of "Lord of the Rings". The evil king has an army of minions that are clearly supposed to be orcs/Uruk-Hai, and more advanced shadowy assassins that scream "Ringwraith"! Once again, similarities to previous (and good works) aren't necessarily a bad thing, but to compensate, you need some really original characters, visuals or plot developments to balance it out and unfortunately "Eragon" does not.

Despite the similarities to other works, the film doesn't have any of the magic that made those stories memorable. The world doesn't feel like it has any identity of its own. The bad guys are just standard fantasy bad guys. The heroes are just regular-looking people in silly armor. The grandiose cities look plain, the civilizations we encounter don't look unique and even the villains (I'm taking about the higher-ups here, not the mooks) aren't memorable at all. What hurts the movie even more is that the story is often badly written. Eragon and his dragon Saphira are able to communicate telepathically. In fact, Saphira cannot speak normally; she can only speak to Eragon in his head. That means if you think about it a bit, several long passages in the film are spent with characters being perfectly quiet while the two main characters speak to each other. Brom in particular must have a lot of patience and be able to instinctly know the difference between awkward silences and dragon-rider moments of dialogue. Another example that really baffled me was a scene about halfway through the film. Brom and Eragon are travelling through the countryside and witness a caravan being attacked by Galbatorix's minions. Eragon tells his mentor that they need to help, that he is ready to fight! The movie then cuts to a training scene. Does that mean they just walked away from those being massacred so they could fence sticks? It gets worse when Eragon begins learning magic. Now I understand that Eragon receives training off-screen, that's what montages are like. But one scene, he doesn't know any magic and the next, he is able to pull any magical trick out of nowhere, anytime the script requires him to!

I realize I've done nothing to defend this movie so here's where I come in with a few positive points. While most of the characters are pretty dull and uninspired, there are at least two that are kind of cool. First is Saphira, the dragon. Intelligently, the beast has been designed to look unique and the moments where she and Eragon are fighting the baddies are actually entertaining. The special effects used to create the dragon have aged well and she actually feels like she has a personality, even it's a bit inconsistent at times. Second is the main minion of Galbatorix. Durza is an evil shade, a wizard possessing demonic powers. Something about actor Robert Carlyle makes the character actually compelling, if only because the makeup used on the man really makes him look like a diabolical insane asylum escapee. The climax of the film features Eragon and Saphira battling Durza and a cool smoke monster creature. In a movie that's really paint-by-numbers, this is actually a moment of genuine excitement and tension. The rest of the battle, when Eragon and Saphira battle the Ra'zac and the Urgals (the orcs) are pretty weak, but I have to give credit to the film for ending on a high note (And promising a sequel!!!).

Maybe it's just that my expectations were really low, but I didn't find "Eragon" to be that bad. That's not to say that it was really good. Fact is, I wouldn't really recommend that you see it, but if you were a kid hat had never seen any of the "Star Wars", "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings" movies and you told me you liked it, I wouldn't call you an idiot. Yes it's faint praise but you could do a lot worse than "Eragon". At least it's better than "Dungeons and Dragons". (Fullscreen version on Dvd, June 20, 2014).