Eragon Reviews

First things first, I have yet to read the book, but my brother absolutely loves it and says it is so worth the read. While the film could have been much better, there are redeeming qualities. Also, I do not think it is the worst fantasy film ever, that dishonour belongs to Dungeons & Dragons.

Starting with the redeeming qualities, the film is very assured visually and technically. The sets are wondrous and the costumes are very nice. Plus the cinematography was excellent, as was the sweeping score. The acting is uneven, but there were some good performances. Jeremy Irons, a great actor, does a good job as Brom acquiring a dry sense of humour, much better than he was in Dungeons & Dragons, somehow his overacting in that film managed to further bring it down. Also John Malkovich chews the scenery with glee as the tyrannical King Galbatorix, and Robert Carlyle is decent as Durza. The best thing though was the dragon Sapphira, very well designed with expressive voice work from Rachel Weisz, and the flying scenes and the CGI effects are a delight.

However, there are many things wrong with Eragon. One is that the film is too short, consequently the characters feel thinly sketched. This could be a reason why the relationship between Eragon and Sapphira came across as unconvincing. The story was a great idea, but due to the running time primarily it meanders all over the place and is unevenly paced(sometimes feeling rushed and sometimes it drags). Ed Speleers is rather bland as Eragon, handsome yes but bland. It is pretty much the same for Sienna Guillory, gorgeous but unconvincing. The actors though are burdened by a very hammy and lacklustre script that could've done with more intelligence and wit and there are parts where the direction is flawed.

Overall, not unbearably awful but I don't necessarily recommend it. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Me gustaba esta película de niño, pero creí y, ahora que me he leído el libro, me di cuenta de lo mala que era. No es buena, ni como película independiente. Incuso gente que desprecia el libro, niega de su existencia.

I was a semi-fan of the book, but realized it's cliché's and realized that it wasn't anything extremely special, so I really didn't care how close they kept the film to the book.

I already knew the film would be cliché, as it is based on a cliché novel. But I really wanted this film to be fun and I wanted to see a good dragon film. I got what I wanted.

Ed Speleers does a good job for his first film role. There are moments in there where you wish he'd done it a little better, but compared to the kid who plays Harry Potter, this guy is awesome.

Jeremy Irons is THE perfect Brom. His portrayal of the character is a bit different from the book, but there are quite a few lines that the character says that are directly from the book, and he felt so right for the part. I was sad to see him die.

Arya is also portrayed a little differently than in the book, being less of a butt hole to Eragon and being a little more flirty with him. However, it doesn't go to far with it.

Durza ROCKED! He was so creepy. I was very impressed by that performance, as well as Galbatorix's.

The special effects were also amazing. Saphira was awesome! And her as a baby...well...awwww. :) I loved the score to this film. The main theme was cool and I liked how they kept that same theme in every single track. Hopefully, if and when Eldest is made, they'll expand the score int o multiple sub-themes and...well...I enjoyed the score. :) I think the two major flaws that I noticed in the film were that it was way too short for it's on good. It felt more like an outline of Eragon rather than what it should've been. And the second flaw being some of the dialogue was a little wooden in parts. Especially with Eragon and Durza.

Either way, this film was far better than the reviews were saying. Go there expecting a fun film, not an epic Lord of the Rings, and you'll enjoy it. And don't got there expecting a direct copy of Eragon the book. Think of it more of a new version of Eragon.

Before watching this flick, following the (very bad) critical response, I wasn't expecting much. Indeed, when it was released, it was literally destroyed by the critics and the viewers so I thought it would be pretty bad. Still since Nick, my step-son, has a weak spot for dragons, I ended up renting it at the DVD shop thinking I was wasting my time and money. Honestly, to my surprise, I didn't think it was that bad at all and I seriously didn’t get what was all the fuss against this movie. Indeed, I thought it would be completely awful but the whole thing was actually rather entertaining. In my opinion, the special effects were rather convincing and there was a nice cast as well (Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle , John Malkovich, Garrett Hedlund, Djimon Hounsou). Basically, after the massive success of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, they started to adapt almost all the available fantasy book series they could find and many, like this one, just flopped. The funny thing was that they even put a nice open ending for a future sequel. That's how confident they were... But no sequel ! To conclude, even though it was a flop, even though it is pretty much hated, I don’t think is that bad at all and I even think it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

If you read the book, then SKIP THE MOVIE. Books are always better, BUT sometimes the movie can be added fun after the book. NOT THE CASE with this one. They LEFT TOO MUCH OUT, which leaves the viewer unable to get attached to the characters and the plot. Not to mention the changes. I DID ENJOY the animation of Saphira, but that was about all. They should've made the 1st book into 2 movies or not at all.

Words fail me. This is the utmost cliched movie on the face of the earth. And I can't understand why. The cast here, besides the awful main character are all wonderful in most movies, and do do a good job here too. Robert Carlyle worked great as a villain, even though he was barely recognisable under the heavy make-up. John Malkovich does great, even though we propably see him for a massive ten minutes or so throughout the entire movie. The guy who plays the main character is terrible though, with his awful brittish accent and Orlando Bloom-ish manners. He does shout better than Orlando though, which is basically what he does throughout the entire movie.

I'm getting tired of talking about mediocre things, so let's talk about the script here, which is awful. First of all, Christopher Paolini's original is a terribly cliched book, but the script here, for some odd reason, was propably made by someone who had never even seen a screenplay before. Buchman skipped ALL the goddamn character development and overall meaningfull scenes, and added tons of utterly useless scenes such as that one where Carlyle is mad at his minions. What was the point of that scene? To show that he is a dominant force in the lines of evil? We knew that already for crying out loud. Then around the beginning of the movie, there's a fortune telling scene, because, well you know, you can't have a fantasy movie without a fortune telling scene now can you? Oh wait, I think I need to cough... *Cough*LOTR*Cough* Bless me. The dialogue is also a little too close to retarded, a departure from the relatively witty one in the book. I can't understand why they had to leave that dialogue out since it would've worked better than these classic lines like " That's the spirit - one part brave, three parts fool." Also, as a sidenote, in the movie that line sounds like the last word would be food.

Technically, this is a pretty damn mediocre movie. You have your run of the mill special effects, which should've been better since this movie is occasionally about nothing but CGI. The score.. or actually, the entire sound mixing of this movie is just fucked up. The score itself is decent, nothing to be nominated for an Oscar or such, but still. But the way it's been mixed to the movie is awful. You can barely hear the music, since for some ridicilous reason even during action scenes which really do need good music to be great the sound is just too damn low. Whoever edited/mixed the audio here was an idiot, plain and simple. He didn't know what he was doing. Which gets us to the director. Even though he kinda did know what he was doing, the directing here is simply meaningless. It doesn't feel like it was directed by a person, all the camera work and such are far too machine-like to make us feel like we would be watching something other than a movie.

I didn't like this movie all too much. It did however sorta keep me entertained and Robert Carlyle is always a blast. I still can't give it any higher than a 3/10 because some really important things were really fucked up here.

Farm boy Eragon (Edward Speelers) comes upon a dragon's egg, sent by Princess Arya. One day, the dragon, Saphira, is born, and Eragon becomes the dragon rider who will set his people free from a tyrant, Galbatorix (John Malkovich).

I found the actors bland, weak, lacking in interpretation. I don't care for Malkovich usually, but even in this film, his acting wasn't what it could have been. Jeremy Irons' character on the other hand was quite despicable! and his acting was right on for the part.

The storyline was also pretty basic, and because the opening credits mentioned this was an adaptation of a book, I realized many situations might be missing from the screen.

Also, I didn't find the dragon Saphira, feminine enough. However, the special effects in general were well done, certainly not extraordinary but well done.

I'm giving it a 5, and I'm probably being generous, considering I haven't read the book. If I had, I probably would have given it a 3 or 4.

Not a bad choice for an action/sci-fi film, if you have nothing else to watch.

There are times when a novel adapted to a movie can turn out as a masterpiece and then there are times when one just shouldn’t bother even thinking about it. This was one of those times. It’s ok if you haven’t read the book and never plan to but if you have, save yourself the trouble, just stick with the book.

For starters majority of the details were left out not to mention specific characters, the acting wasn’t exactly what it should’ve been and the characters were weak. Absolutely weak! They could’ve fleshed it out more. The movie didn’t even go for two hours so they had time to fit in some more details but instead they opted for trying to make it more dramatic by getting the actors to make stupid whimsical faces.

Don’t waste your time. It was so weak not even John Malkovich could save it and that’s saying something.

The book was overrated to begin with (and it was a wee bit of a ripoff of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings), but this book-to-movie adaption was just pathetic. It is a condensed version, at best, and really doesn't explain anything. So much is missed out from the book that it really doesn't seem worth it to me. I'm not going into too much detail, you can see for yourself. I didn't really like much of the acting, and I just have to ask... why does Durza look like a toned down version of Mortiis at times? (That might just be me...)

All that said it does have some nice effects (though the film does seem to be concentrated on them). I have to admit I went "awww" at the baby Saphira.

Now to avoid ranting about how every fantasy film seems to have a mandatory Scottish guy nowadays...

nothing here ... the book was not great, but ok, but the movie is an uninspirated collection of midlevel special effects ... they pushed every aspect of the story in a 2 min scene instead of concentrating on the points that matter.