Eragon (2006)

Director: Stefen Fangmeier

Screenplay Writer: Peter Buchman

Novel: Christopher Paolini

Cast: Edward Speelers (Eragon), Jeremy Irons (Brom), Sienna Guilory (Arya), Robert Carlylye (Durza), John Malkovich (Galbatorix), Rachel Weiss (Saphira's voice)

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Family

Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes

Rating: 5/10

Synopsis:

Eragon, a farm boy hailed from Carvahall, was shocked to find a long oval stone sparkling with blue sapphire colour in front of him during his hunt in the Spine. Awed by its beauty and the thought of being priceless, he took it home to only discover that he cannot buy food with the stone.

He placed the stone in his room and kept it a secret even to his uncle, Garrow, and cousin, Roran. To his astonishment, the stone hatched that very night and it was not an ordinary stone but a dragon egg. He raised his sapphire dragon with the name of Saphira in the forest.

What innocent Eragon didn’t know is the king, Galbatorix, has sent his men, the Ra’zac, to retrieve the egg from Eragon, for it has been stolen from him.

The arrival of the Ra’zac marked the beginning of Eragon’s adventure with Saphira. With the help of Brom, one of the Carvahall’s villagers, Eragon learned the art of magic and fighting.

The connection of fate between Eragon and Saphira makes him the first new generation of the Dragon Riders, which he realizes that he has the power to destroy and save the Empire.

Review:

I would actually just recommend you guys to read the book than watching the movie or both. This is because many parts in the book are not shown in the movie. So the book will compliment the scenes that are not in the movie.

I just feel that everything in the movie is too rushing despite having a chronological and logical story flow if you don’t read the book. Not only that, I just find there are just too many running here and there scenes including the fighting. I thought it would include more scenes of Eragon and Brom obtaining some information from villages like they did in the book. In the movie, Eragon looks like deft with magic, which is not the case in the book because he’s just an amateur who happens to have some innate extra magic powers and always blur blur with things. That is why Brom always asked him to stay out of trouble. The book also tells how Eragon is discovering his life history for he has been abandoned by his mum since he was born. If you really watch the movie closely, you could notice that the actors don’t speak much. They have short conversations like the captions I made for the pictures below.


I'm going to win the GoldFish Wannabe Contest!!!!

And come on, why is Saphira’s voice like a melting butter?? I think her voice should be tough, a little masculine but feminine as well. I just dislike her voice throughout the movie. Oh man, poor Weiss.


Big body ... big wings ... strong tail but you squek like a mouse and you act like one, Saphira

<
Give me back my favourite dentures!!!


Did someone just fart?

Overall, the movie was crap. The story plot doesn’t follow the book much except for the beginning. I was so pretty optimistic that this movie is following the book when the beginning was quite the same. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed to see things turning out not like the young Paolini has written. He might have been disappointed as well but who asked him to sell the copyright to the director? I just have the hunch that the producer and his gung ho just want to reap as much profit as they can while this book is still selling like hot cakes.

Thankful: There’s a technology called graphics to make this movie ‘watchable’.

Ungrateful: I spent RM 8 for this movie which is not even par with any other fantasy movie like Narnia or LOTR.

Thank you
for this wonderful review!

I was concerned about this movie as well, and thereby had low hopes of it anyway. I'm glad to know they were confirmed.
» elessar257 on 2006-12-20 01:58:42

I haven't read the book so I do not know the story. But I have watched the movie and I think the story development is too fast but the graphic is good. Does the dragon just grow up when she takes her first flight in the book? How come Saphira was able to blow fire during the war/fight when I remember she said she was not able to use it yet?
» blueyen on 2006-12-24 11:31:36

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