[Movies] Eragon

While I have yet to read the book, the movie version of Eragon was sadly disappointing, to say the least. I always try to watch book-to-film movies with a rather large dose of salt, I'm pretty sure this movie wasn't an example of a well-executed transition.

The film felt jerky in many parts with the story constantly bogging down and the awkward transitions not helping the film in the least. It was actually boring despite the potential for adventure given it was about a boy dragon rider.

In terms of the core story, I couldn't help but notice many of the concepts were clearly lifted to some extent from previous works of fantasy. One can't help but think about some more famous dragon riders brought to life by author Anne McCaffrey. The chase sequences that dominate most of the film an even the dark poison are clearly Tolkien-esque in style and inspiration. Heck, even the farm boy thrust into extraordinary circumstances reeks of previous children's stories like Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three and other books from the The Chronicles of Prydain. I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but compare. I'm sure there are even more books that were tapped.

I'm not saying that this is the first time this has happened - many science fiction and fantasy writers end up doing this whether knowingly or unknowingly. However you need to do it well and if the movie is any indication of Christopher Paolini's writing abilities, then this could be even more disappointing than originally thought.

At least Edward Speleers, who played Eragon, wasn't too bad as a first-time movie actor. Plus he's sorta cute in a one-day-future-model kind of way. Jeremy Irons did his usual thing which makes us all think of Scar of The Lion King fame and John Malkovich, despite being a tremendous actor in my opinion, was horribly underutilized in the movie.

It might have been better if they had left this movie as a book.