Fantasy Eragon Full of Hot Air
Farm boy Eragon (newcomer Ed Speleers) finds a giant blue sphere in the middle of the forest sent unknowingly to him by the beautiful elfin princess Arya (Seinna Guillory). Turns out the object is a dragon egg lusted after by an evil king named Galbatorix (John Malkovich).The ruler tasks his most vicious aid the sorcerer Durza (Robert Carlyle) to recover it for him, commanding him to kill any and all who stand in the way of doing so.
Too bad for them, the egg hatches and the dragon Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weisz) is born, linking herself with the questioning Eragon as a partner. With the aid of mysterious warrior Brom (Jeremy Irons) they learn that once their land was a peaceful place guarded by Dragon Riders, fabled protectors betrayed and slaughtered by Galbatorix himself. Now, with the fate of their entire world hanging in the balance, dragon and rider work to become one to help bring peace, prosperity and freedom back to their fellow countrymen.
Golly, I guess we haven’t ever heard, seen or read this plot outline before now have we? From “The Lord of the Rings” to “Star Wars” this adaptation of Christopher Paolini’s best-selling young adult novel is about as familiar as you would expect from that prior description. Sure it is better than that “Dungeons & Dragon” movie of a few years back (which, coincidentally, also starred Irons), but that’s really not saying much. The film is a great big pile of nearly unwatchable slop, and the only reason it isn’t a complete waste of time is thanks to a far-too talented group of actors doing their all to somehow make this mess tolerable.
That’s a bit harsh, especially as “Eragon” isn’t so much bad as it is boring. Whatever it is that makes Paolini’s novel (which I haven’t read) so popular isn’t to be found in Peter Buchman’s (“Jurassic Park III”) tired and forgettable screenplay. This whole thing plays like Fantasy Epic Filmmaking 101, and for all the visual ingenuity behind some of it pretty pictures by themselves do not a fabulous motion picture make. There needs to be character and story to give it zest and zing, two things this film lacks in almost pathetic fashion.
Freshman director Stefen Fangmeier (a former special effects technician who worked on “Galaxy Quest” and “Saving Private Ryan”) does what he can to liven up the material, but with far too much time to fill and so little narrative in which to do it with this thing is a lost cause right from the start. While it looks great and the CGI dragon is impressive, the fact that the people and their problems are so uninteresting and clichéd caused the thought of caring for any of them or their plight to never really cross my mind.
I do find it humorous that the project’s production notes go on and on about how Saphira is the most photo-realistic and emotionally descriptive dragon ever. Problem? While it might be interesting to have your two main characters do the bulk of their communicating telepathically in a novel, in a movie it’s just dumb. Wistful scenes of human and beast staring at one another intently are boring, and I don’t care how cool the rest of the beast is if I don’t care about it emotionally than really what’s the point. The creature in “Dragonheart” was more expressive than this one is, while the old school classic “Dragonslayer” still puts this and every other winged-serpent tale to shame on every level that there is.
Fox is hoping “Eragon” will be their “Harry Potter,” “The Lord of the Rings” or “The Chronicles of Narnia” cash cow. They dream that Paolini’s trilogy (the second part Eldest won a Quill Award for young adult fiction) will bring them box office dominance for years to come. The Hollywood studio is hoping and praying for lots of things, none of which matter a lick if the movie lays a giant dragon-sized egg, making all their aspirations nothing more than a bunch of hot air dissipating in the cold winter breeze.
Film Rating: ê1/2 (out of 4)
