Déja vu.
When I was doing a little digging on the ‘net for general cast information about Eragon, I noticed that a lot of people seem to be mentioning that it’s a a blatant Star Wars ripoff. To some extent, that’s true, but Star Wars in and of itself rips off a lot of myths, so take that for what it’s worth.
I feel compelled to inform you in the interest of integrity that I am not a fan of dragon movies.
Now that pesky integrity thing is out of the way, I’d like to offer up that I am not enthralled by Eragon. There is nothing about dragons and fantasy flicks in general that has ever entertained or amused me. This movie is not the exception to the rule either. It’s a hodgepodge of fantasy movie plots and mythology. It’s not inventive or anything new.
Eragon moves like a highlight reel at a fantasy convention and I get the sense that maybe that’s not what the fine people who made it were looking for. Story wise, though, it’s on solid footing and it at least makes sense.
Eragon is a poor farm boy who was abandoned by his mother. He finds a stone in the woods one day that hatches into a dragon. When the dragon accepts him as a rider, all hell breaks loose. In the days of old, there used to be dragon riders until one of them got some no-good aspirations into his head and became a king. His name is Galbatorix, which only made me think of some sort of intergalactic Star Trek villain. Who plays Galbatorix?
You know John Malkovich took this one to pay off his house or something. In fact, he’s not the only famous person slumming it in this one. I don’t know what the hell was going on with this flick, but some really well-respected actors lined up for decent pay with little work.
Damn.
Galbatorix isn’t too happy about another dragon rider to be called, so he puts his faithful servant on the job of finding the last remaining dragon rider. Galbatorix made sure every dragon rider was gone, or so he thought.
If I weren’t so familiar with Robert Carlyle’s crazy ass, I never would have recognized him. This is some “Robert Carlyle goes to the Renaissance Faire” kind of bullshit going on here, if Robert Carlyle let his Dead Can Dance-listening girlfriend dye his hair with Manic Panic. Watching Robert Carlyle smarm his way through this is ghastly and painful. I suspect it would be a lot like how I would feel if I were ever dragged to a Renaissance Faire, come to think of it.
Eragon’s family is killed while Robert Carlyle searches for him, but a helpful mentor named Brom shows up and lends a hand to Eragon’s survival with a little persuasion. Thus they must travel to a stronghold of resistance in order to mount the forces necessary to defeat Galbatorix and essentially save Eragon’s life.
Brom is the best thing about this movie mainly because he’s played by a hot old man we all know and love named Jeremy Irons.
Besides being handsome, what I love most about Jeremy Irons in this movie is that he practically walks though every scene with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. It’s a smile that says, “This turkey is paying for my new car and my kid’s college education, so I might as well ham it up while I have the chance”. Thanks, Jeremy. He’s the one bright spot in a drab flick. Plus, he’s the kind of hotness that makes you want to lick your television screen. That would be a good idea, except not – all you’re left with is a tongue coated with the taste of bitter disappointment and dust.
Ed Speelers is the kid who plays Eragon. I don’t know how I feel about him. He’s awful, awful, awful. He could have been replaced in half the movie by a mannequin and it would have been alright. He takes what should be a standard character and makes him either obnoxious, tedious or monotonous.
And Djimon Hounsou showed up to collect a paycheck, I see…
So did Garrett Hedlund. Ouch.
Eragon isn’t a movie that makes a viewer claw their eyes out; it’s a movie that bores the viewer right to sleep.
How lame is that?
I’ve always believed that the greatest sin a movie can commit is to be boring. I can forgive a lot of flaws (bad script, acting, effects, etc) if a movie is at least entertaining. If the movie is boring though? No. All bets are off. You dwell on all the minor annoyances in a movie when it’s boring. You can’t help but notice the flaws because there’s nothing better to do.
I didn’t find this all that bad- it was written by what, a 16 year old? Sure, that’s no excuse, as Superbad and From Dusk Till Dawn were both conceived when their creators were little nerdlings, but Eragon wasn’t as bad as let’s say, Dungeons & Dragons.
I’d say it was mediocre, like the glut of fantasy movies from the 80’s. I just watched Red Sonja, and that’s pretty painful. The best actor is B-movie queen Sandahl Bergman.
You can’t help but notice the flaws because there’s nothing better to do.
Truer words were never spoken, that’s for sure.
I didn’t find this all that bad- it was written by what, a 16 year old?
The book was, and it’s my understanding the screenplay has major departures from the book.
I agree that Dungeons and Dragons was far, far worse, but Eragon’s just boring. I wouldn’t say it was horrendously awful or anything, just boring and uninteresting.
I didn’t hate this or anything, but I didn’t I think it was great. A little laughable, at times almost passable. Honestly, though, if you hadn’t posted those screencaps, I would have been hard-pressed to remember much of it. It’s all jumbled up with Stardust and Earthsea in my head. I’m not a big fan of dragons, either.
John Malkovich seemed supremely dull (but then that’s my general opinion of him), and it was painful to watch Robert Carlyle–I realize he usually plays a baddie, but some part of me refuses to let go of him as Hamish Macbeth–as the freaky-faced evil henchman.
I may have cared more about Garrett Hedlund’s character than anyone else . . ? If he was the stereotypical dark, brooding, mysterious, lurking character, then, yeah. But I may be thinking of someone from another movie.
I think you covered what’s bad (and what’s good– Irons!) in this post very well. I was dragged to this movie with my book club, because I thought “Meh, can’t be that bad.”
Corrections are cruel sometimes.
may have cared more about Garrett Hedlund’s character than anyone else . . ? If he was the stereotypical dark, brooding, mysterious, lurking character, then, yeah.
No, he’s the right one…and he was surprisingly decent for what he was given.
Corrections are cruel sometimes.
Oooh, ouch. I’m so sorry! In the THEATER, no less. What a bummer.
I absolutely love your paragraph devoted to Jeremy Irons!
“all you’re left with is a tongue coated with the taste of bitter disappointment and dust.”
LOL.
That paragraph was more interesting and entertaining than all of Eragon. I heard great things about the book. Fans told me they massacred the story in the movie. *Shock* If they’d spent more money on development and effects and less on actors, maybe it would’ve been better.
The movie is indeed a huge departure from the book which IMO is entertaining enough. Adaptation is required to cut a book to movie length but they butchered it with this one, the casting was terrible, hence the acting was horrific.
They changed many things that gave the world life. Aria is a black haired elf (pointy ears and all) who does not wear dresses. Details like that had little reason to be changed but doing so makes the film a one dimensional reflection of a generic ‘fantasy world’ rather than an interesting work.
All in all an abysmal movie.
And much of it would have been fixed by sticking closer to the book and casting decently. Given the popularity of the book series this could have been a multi-movie cash cow for the studio but the way they handled it I seriously doubt there will ever be another one (or than anyone would go to it). Very stupid mistake.
I agree that Eragon the Movie was a load of bull but the book is 100% better. as some may have said before they cut parts of the book out that destroyed the movie which should have been named something other that eragon.
they cut parts of the book out that destroyed the movie which should have been named something other that eragon.
I’m kind of interested to read this book now, since apparently they chopped it up like crazy to make the movie. Huh.
If they’d spent more money on development and effects and less on actors, maybe it would’ve been better.
I suppose so; although when the blueprint for your movie is in a book already, it’s kind of hard to screw that up… or at least you’d think so.
That was not exactly what ive waiting for when i went to see the movie with my friend…i prefer the book…
but kinda liked the crew
well Garrett Hedlund was my fav ^^
I actually only like Garrett…
This movie, seriously, majorly, pissed me off. Even more than the fourth harry potter movie did…I can deal with a few changes in plot, to speed things up a bit…i can deal with bad acting, i can deal with bad costumes, or bad FX. But when you COMPLETELY MASSACRE the script!? There is NO forgiveness. I hope the people who thought this Travesty was going to attract customers have a special place in hell…Allow me to point out SOME of the ways they screwed up the film:
They Completely skipped the dragon growing up scenes. They could have had some cool shifting as the dragon gets bigger and bigger, and eventually starts to speak, but noooooo, they have to have it Fly up in the SKY, get struck by LIGHTNING, and then come back down fully grown! What the F is the point of that? They just wanted better FX? Come on, MAJOR fail.
They Turned it into an anti-feminist spam-fest! In the BOOK, Ayla is allways wearing skin-tight concealing leather, never anything remotely feminine…wham, bam! For some reason she’s wearing DRESSES? For petes sake, she’s a 100 year old Warrior elf, she’s not going to be wearing dresses, no matter how anti-feminist the Varden may be.
They turned Saphira into a SLAVE? It is stated in the book, time and time again, that Saphira has a will of her own, often wont do what eregon wants her to, and saves him from a bunch of trouble through it all! All all of a sudden, in the movie, he’s ordering her around!? “Im the rider and i say we go!” It has the ring of the ancient child-emperors, “i Want it, i want it i WANT it!” EPIC FAIL. seriously, what enti-feminist idiots wrote this thing anyway?
The WORST offence, in my mind, however, is the MASSACRE of Angela, the Fortuneteller. In the BOOK, she is a cheeky older sister type with black bushy hair, a ready smile, and a peculiar fondness for frogs….in the TRAVESTY, they convert her into the typical B-movie fortuneteller!? She was, by FAR, my Favorite character, and they effectively COMPLETELY eliminate her!? BLOODY HELL.
Thats a good sized paragraph i’ve made on THREE THINGS. I could practically write a whole BOOK on the topic… The armor sucks? The sword is impractical(useless)? They completely Skip 98% of the ancient languange? They COMPLETELY changed the look of farthen-dur? No, No, No, NO, NO NO NONONONONONONO…..
Here is a list of SOME of the other major items they SCREWED UP.
1.there arent ment to be guards in carvahall and the time which the guard scenes took up should be used in bits that they missed out.
2.Roran (Eragons cousin) leaves for the wrong reasons he is ment to leave because he wants to get married to his girlfriend katrina in the film he leaves because hes afraid he will get recruited.
3.Saphira grows way…too quickly she doesnt just transform into a big dragon while shes flying she grows over a few days.
4.Eragon is too old in the book hes ment to be 15 going on 16 but in the film hes 17.
5.Eragons uncle doesn’t die like that hes ment to burn in a fire were hes rescued and taken to i think its Horsts house were he dies of a fever.
6.Angela the fortune teller person is in the wrong city as thats were all the villagers were killed and she ment to be were Jeod lives which is another city oh and jeod isnt in the film.
7.Urgals look wrong they are ment to have horns.
8.Eragon is ment to be captured were he finds Arya but instead in the film he goes and rescues her also murtag came in at the wrong time and was ment to shoot durza in the end but instead Eragon does.
9.Arya is ment to be unconscious through the whole journey to the varden.
10.giant urgals called the kull are ment to be foloing them not just normal urgals.
11.when they reach the waterfall eragon is ment to say some special words to open the stone wall to the varden.
12.3 characters arew missing the twins and orik who is a dwarf.
13.there is not one dwarf i see in the film and there arel ike hundreds in the book.
14.some random character the one with blondish grey hair and has a staff i thought maybe he was one of the twins but im not rly sure.
15.urgals in the battle were not all ment to die so quickly they were ment to fight each other when durza was killed.
16.durza is riding..well i dont know wtf that thing is and well its not in the book.
17.i shouldve put this problem further back but just remembered.they didnt even go through the Hadarac desert.
18.murtag is meant to be freed were he fights in the battle.
19.galbatorix armies are not even ment to be in the battle only the urgals.
20.eragon is ment to get his armour and dragon armour from the dwarves.
21.saphira was not close to death in the book only eragon was.
22. i missed 3 other problems out which i just remebered now brom is ment to
die by the razac and the razac dont die in the first or even the second book but im not sure if they were killed cause well they sorta dissapeared.and eragon should be chasing the razac but in the film the razac are chasing them.
23. Plus the action was lame and childish
Eragon is a great story and the book series is incredibly complex; if anybody here can offer a better cinematic interpretation of a book that runs in excess of 300 pages, I would love to see it. From what I have seen, considering all the information on the story that Paolini includes in his story, the movie makers made a valiant effort to stay true to the spirit of the book. Anybody that has ever seen a movie based on a book will agree that the movie can never really hold a candle to the book. One more thing… How many of you have actually read the book anyway?
Cody, i have read the eragon book more times than i can count. Mostly because i’ve read ALL my books that many times, but meh, besides the point. The Point is, they screwed up EVERYTHING in the movie so badly, they completely screwed the possibility of a sequel, but even worse, they ruined it in the minds of the readers.
I define a good movie as at least having the actors of the movie being subbed over your mental images of the characters a little bit. This didn’t happen, at ALL, in eregon. Perhaps only brom was consistant enough with the story for that to happen.
While each individual change may not have been significant enough to ruin the film in the long run, combined they completely screw it over…
eragon-the movie-was the worst movie made from a book I have ever seen
I enjoyed the book but the movie made me want to kill somebody it was so terrible
I can’t remember a single thing from the movie that was correct. They couldn’t even get the simple things like hair color right. They completely left out important characters like the twins. Everything was so easy for him but in the book he struggled to lift a pebble.
It was a monstrosity and if you liked the movie than you obviously didn’t read the book. If you haven’t read the book than read it and skip this embarrassment of a movie.
I thought that the book Eragon was really good. I thought that the movie would be ok( when i saw the trailer) but then it is not even BASED on the fricken book! it was totally re-written. And, Arya doesnt even have pointed ears..wtf??
I have to agree a little bit about the whole star wars rip off thingy, because in the book there is a scene where its like : “I promise ill come back master” blah blah blah. there are also a couple other things that copy. But then again, wasnt he like 19 or something when it was published?