Eragon DVD review
January 27, 2007 – 9:30 pm | by Peekay
Christopher Paolini’s book is another in the line of highly successful children’s fantasy books that have been made into films in order to cash in on the popularity of the original novel, but also this very trend. It joins the Harry Potter series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Alex Rider series, and even the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Eragon is a young parent-less farm-boy, enjoying his life before he turns 18 and is likely to be forcibly interred into the army. But before that moment can come he comes into possession of a strange blue egg. An egg that hatches a dragon, Saphira, who is the last of her kind who leads Eragon towards his fate of being one of the fabled Dragon-Riders.
Galbatorix (John Malkovich being slightly menacing) rules the land and fears the return of the Dragon-riders, so sends his armies to destroy them, led by magician Durza (played by Robert Carlyle in his most un-scary way!).
And so the scene is set for chases, fights, the occasional close encounter with death, the loss of loved ones and the learning of a glib lesson or two about life.
Hungary and special effects create a spectacular landscape where the action unfolds, the special effects are fabulous, even managing to create a passable dragon throughout the film, and the supporting cast is rich in talent. The final battle scene owes a lot to those in the Lord of the Rings movies, and is suitably impressive.
However the film fails on two important points, one is the movie novice Ed Speeler who appears to be unable to express emotion unless it is that he has nice hair and chiselled features. And the second is that Paolini’s story has been massacred into a screenplay that does everything by the numbers. A better director who could tease something out of Speeler, and a half-decent screenplay could have guaranteed that the rest of this series was to be made. As it is…
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