I read many reviews before seeing "Eragon", all were negative, and the trailer looked campy, so my expectations were set very low. They couldn't be low enough for me to like this movie though. Everything feels rushed, the acting is absolutely horrible from previously respectable actors, and the script seems to have been written by the master of bad scripts; George Lucas. Even he could've done a better job though. Get this, "Eragon" was directed by Stefen Fangmeier, who has never directed before, all he's done is visual effects. Why Fox 2000 put so much money into a movie directed by an FX artist is beyond me. Also, every scene seems to have been ripped from "Star Wars" and made to look like "Lord of the Rings". There is no originality here, none at all. That is partly the book writer's fault; Christopher Paolini. The "Eragon" books are among the worse ever written, and I've read some real doosies. His writing is horrible to read.
I won't go into plot details, partly because I don't want anyone wasting money on this. But really all you have to do is think of "Star Wars" then add a dragon, and pointy swords, and you've got "Eragon" in a nutshell. The worst thing about this is that even though it's only 95 minutes long, it still feels like forever. It is so boring, and it drags and drags. Fans of the book will be infuriated at the liberties the filmmakers took. The book takes place over a year, but the movie appears to take place over a couple days, so none of the movie makes sense. In one scene the baby dragon off and suddenly grows large in little puffs of fire right before Eragons' eyes, when really it takes the dragon months to grow. The acting is another thing, perfectly good actors from John Malkovich, to Jeremy Irons, to one of my new favorites; Djimon Hounsou, are totally wasted in horrendous dialogue, and they end up just looking stupid. Newcomer Edward Speelers plays a great pansy. The only semi-good actor was Robert Carlyle as Durza, a very creepy bad guy, but even he looked ridiculous at times.
If you want to watch good fantasy, watch "Lord of the Rings" for the 24th time, or to see the story told a million times better, watch "Star Wars" for the 100th time. I feel as if the fantasy genre is fading, thought provoking, and feel good films are slowly taking over. We should enjoy fantasy while we have it, but not this. I give it 3 out of 10. "Eragon" is rated PG for fantasy violence, intense battle sequences and some frightening images
I won't go into plot details, partly because I don't want anyone wasting money on this. But really all you have to do is think of "Star Wars" then add a dragon, and pointy swords, and you've got "Eragon" in a nutshell. The worst thing about this is that even though it's only 95 minutes long, it still feels like forever. It is so boring, and it drags and drags. Fans of the book will be infuriated at the liberties the filmmakers took. The book takes place over a year, but the movie appears to take place over a couple days, so none of the movie makes sense. In one scene the baby dragon off and suddenly grows large in little puffs of fire right before Eragons' eyes, when really it takes the dragon months to grow. The acting is another thing, perfectly good actors from John Malkovich, to Jeremy Irons, to one of my new favorites; Djimon Hounsou, are totally wasted in horrendous dialogue, and they end up just looking stupid. Newcomer Edward Speelers plays a great pansy. The only semi-good actor was Robert Carlyle as Durza, a very creepy bad guy, but even he looked ridiculous at times.
If you want to watch good fantasy, watch "Lord of the Rings" for the 24th time, or to see the story told a million times better, watch "Star Wars" for the 100th time. I feel as if the fantasy genre is fading, thought provoking, and feel good films are slowly taking over. We should enjoy fantasy while we have it, but not this. I give it 3 out of 10. "Eragon" is rated PG for fantasy violence, intense battle sequences and some frightening images