Movie Review: Eragon

    

Eragon
2006, 110mins, PG
Director: Stefen Fangmeier
Writer: Peter Buchman, Christopher Paolini (Novel)
Cast includes: Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich, Sienna Guillory, Djimon Hounsou, Rachel Weisz
Release Date: 15th December 2006

Dragons really are an ill treated breed in the world of cinema. Most films in which they are involved seem to be out and out stinkers and those that aren’t utterly terrible like 2002’s Reign Of Fire are still pretty heavily flawed. It is worrying then that Eragon might be the worst Dragon fuelled multiplexer yet. Eragon is based on a book of the same name which was written by a then teenager whilst the film is directed by a man firmly in his 40’s but by the looks of things a bit of mentality role reversal is in effect. The book by Christopher Paolini is no masterpiece but still equates to an enjoyable and well written piece of literature, the film on the other hand helmed by Stefen Fangmeier is dumb as nuts and teenage wish fulfillment of the absolute worst kind.

Eragon (Ed Speleers) is a young farmboy (cough…Skywalker…cough) who one night whilst hunting meat finds a large blue stone in a forest clearing. Initially the stone seems like a way with which he might be able to feed his family for the winter, but it quickly becomes apparent that this new found gem is holding something much more powerful than the young boy could have imagined. Inside is a Dragon hatchling who quickly bonds with Ergon and marks the first of its kind in existence for a very long time. The egg was left there for a reason however as king Galbotorix (John Malkovich) has ruled the lands with an iron fist and by giving Eragon the egg fate has once again prompted the legend of “The Dragon Riders”. The Riders where a group who kept safe the lands and brought justice down on those who deserved it (cough…Jedi….cough), but via Galbotorix had been killed off. Now under the guidance of Brom (Jeremy Irons) Eragon is determined to once again make the Dragon Riders mighty and strong, and bring peace to the lands once more.

The adaptation of Eragon is woeful, screenwriter Peter Buchman has hacked Paolini’s story to pieces and assembled it again in a far shorter and less interesting fashion. The original text wasn’t particularly original but it featured well conceived characters a decent plot and plenty of logical explanations, none of which have been allowed to crossover in this movie adaptation. The story has been made far simpler and less compelling, the actors are either unskilled or bored whilst finally the script throws far too much at the audience which is never fully explained or well detailed. Unless you’ve read the source then you stand no chance of understanding this messy screen version, and even if you have there is little to no chance of you being anything other than disgusted by what you’ve been presented with.

In the lead Ed Speleers is annoying and wooden, never a good start when you consider he is portraying the character we have to relate to. At times such is the lack of expression on his face that he makes Hayden Christensen’s turn in Attack Of The Clones look Pacino like. Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich both slum it for the paycheck, the latter is particularly disappointing as the big bad (and irregularly seen) villain of the piece. Djimon Hounsou is unusually dull but plays easily the worst part of the main cast as the leader of a rebellion group, in what must be he hoped a role that would mature as the franchise continued or more likely offered a fat wad of cash.

Sienna Guillory is poor as the token love interest whilst Rachel Weisz gives an uninspired voice over to the Dragon. On the very minor plus side as Galbotorix right hand man Durza, Robert Carlyle is suitably slimy and makes the inane dialogue seem occasionally proper. Carlyle’s performance is really the only one that Eragon could recommend itself on, and it belongs in a different and more suitable treatment of the material.
Stefen Fangmeier directs with a technical competence and the CGI looks the part, but his recreation of the story is messy and the battle scenes uninteresting. After watching Eragon you might guess it to have roughly a $50 million budget which is fairly short for this sort of picture, but in actual fact it’s packing a far higher $100 million behind the camera. Fangmeiers money must have largely gone on the Dragon and landscape shots because everything else in Eragon looks cheap and unconvincing. Fight scenes will thrill nobody but the 7 year old demographic, whilst much of the creature make-up outside of our Dragon looks obvious and tacky. Had the level of CGI quality been reduced Eragon would really look no better than your average DTV fantasy schlock.

The films climax’s in a typically uninspired fashion in what must contest as the least impressive “epic battle” finish ever. The movie leaves open a slight cliffhanger although its nothing that readers of the novel won’t have been fully prepared for from the start. The source book is roughly 500 pages in length and yet it has been condensed into this 90 minute Star Wars rip off of a film. If Paolini ever took inspiration from Luca’s or Tolkien he did it in a far more subtle fashion, here shots from both the Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings trilogy are lazily recreated. Remember in a New Hope where Luke looks up to the sun? Virtually the same shot is done in Eragon albeit with one less Sun in sight. Remember in The Two Towers where Saruman rallies his vast Orc army? It appears in Eragon with Robert Carlyle subbing for Christopher Lee and far less in the way of genuine spectacle to behold.
This sort of sloppily done blockbuster is why one finds him detesting on occasion the summer and Holiday season, because each inevitably brings a big budget heap of crap like this one. Fantasy fans and those who enjoyed the book aren’t even suggested to give this one a shot, because no matter what your taste badly assembled film is badly assembled film and nobody wants to pay to see that.