Eragon ~ Becka's Movie Review

Okay, admittedly, this movie has been out for a few months. It just recently came out to DVD. My DH has been a "spoilsport" about this movie, hemming and hawing, not wanting to see it, however I really did, and so did my kids. But I'm not "gung ho" to take my kids to the theater without the hubby, so we never saw this movie in the theater.

And despite my sister telling me the movie was good, DH would lament that it sucked, partially because it got a very "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and my hubby pretty much lives off that site for movie reviews.

Anyhow, needless to say, I bought this DVD, despite the cajolings of DH, and we watched it the other night. Both of us were pleasantly surprised!

Now, it's no secret that I LUV dragons, ever since I wrote one in my Legends of Mynos series. But I don't just want the "dumb animal" dragons a la the D&D Movie *shudder*, I want intelligent dragons a la Draco from Dragonheart.

Eragon didn't disappoint in this area. And the imagination between the dragon and it's rider was very well done, in my opinion. As a writer, I can see the quality of imagination behind stories. And Paolini's imagination at bringing Eragon to life was top notch.

Now, it is true this story really brings nothing "new" to the table. While watching the movie, you'll feel as if you've seen it before, but really, all fantasy has an element of the "unexpected" hero or heroine saving the world. Usually, this hero is from some random farming family. And of course, there's the default "taking out" of the family that sends the intrepid hero on his journey of self-discovery.

The main bad guy is the evil king, played by John Malkovich, who is a great actor. I was a little bummed not to see more of him in this movie. But his lackey reminded me too much of Grima Wormtongue from the Lord of the Rings movies, almost to distraction. Obviously he wasn't the same, but his look was definately spot on. Jeremy Irons plays the hero's mentor, which reminded me of a cross between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bowen from Dragonheart.

While the movie is predicable, it is still enjoyable. There were a few continuity errors DH and I noticed, the biggest one of all when the love interest shows the hero the dragon's full armor that had been made for her, and in the very next scene, the dragon is wearing armor, but it isn't the same armor shown in the previous scene. That was a little jolting.

However, the battle scenes in the sky were amazing and took my breath away. When the dragon releases her fiery breath on the masses, I wanted to cheer. Loved it!

This movie heavily implies to there being a second, and I'm hoping they'll make it, even though this movie didn't get highly rated. I would love to see more of John Malkovich playing an over-the-top bad guy!

Now, I haven't read any of the books, and a friend of ours told us they cut a lot out for the movie, so if you're an Eragon book geek, you'll obviously notice this. However, when you make a 2 hour movie from a hundreds-of-pages-long book, something's got to get cut. But I can't really make a judgment on how well they did or didn't do with regards to keeping the "purity" of the story intact.

Long story short, DH and I had low expectations. We were pleasantly surprised. If you're looking for a "breath of fresh air" with regards to fantasy, you will not find it in this movie. But if you don't have at least a good time watching the aerial special effects, well, then there's probably no pleasing you. :)

~~Becka