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"The Dragon is the Star"
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The 2006 fantasy film based on the novel of the same name.
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Rating:
-4
Dragons can be a bit of a downer for movies. It seems that many films Dragons are involved in end up turning out badly. It is worrying, then, that Eragon may be the worst Dragon-fuelled multiplexer yet. The book by Christopher Paolini was, in my opinion, quite an enjoyable and well written piece of literature. The film, on the other hand, is uninspired, dull, and far-fetched.
Here's a quick summary of the plot (don't worry, no major plot spoilers). Eragon is a young farm boy who finds a large blue stone in a forest. Initially, the stone seems like a way to feed his family, but it quickly becomes apparent that this is no ordinary gem. Inside is a Dragon hatchling who quickly bonds with Eragon and marks the first of its kind in existence for a very long time. The egg was left there for a reason, however, as king Galbotorix has ruled the land with an iron fist. By giving Eragon the egg, destiny has brought back the mythical “Dragon Riders”. The Riders were a group of warriors who protected the land and brought justice to those who deserved it. However, they were all killed by Galbotorix. Eragon is now determined to make the Dragon Riders a force to be reckoned with once again, and to bring peace to the lands.
The film adaptation of Eragon is terribly poor. The screenwriter has hacked Paolini’s story to pieces and assembled it again in a shorter, less interesting fashion. The original book wasn’t entirely original, but it featured well conceived characters an interesting plot with plenty of logical explanations. Unfortunately, none of this logic is included in the film. Unless you’ve read the novel, you stand no chance of understanding this messy theatrical version. Even if you have read the book, chances are you'll simply end up disgusted by this rendition of the text.
Fangmeier directs with a technical competence and the CGI looks the part, but his recreation of the story is messy and the battle scenes are uninteresting. After watching Eragon you might guess it to have a $50 million or so budget, which is fairly small for such a film, but it's actually been given a far higher $100 million budget. The money must have mostly been used on the Dragon and landscape shots, because everything else in Eragon looks cheap and unconvincing. Fight scenes are disappointing in a multitude of ways, and much of the creature makeup outside of the Dragon is obvious and tacky. Without the CGI, Eragon would just be another run-of-the-mill, shoddy fantasy film.
The film climaxes in a typically uninspired fashion in what is one of the least impressive “epic battle” finishes I've seen. The movie leaves with a slight cliffhanger, but it's nothing that readers of the original novel won’t have been prepared for from the start.
This type of sloppily done blockbuster is why I sometimes find myself dreading the summer and Holiday season, because each often brings such a poor quality film like this one. It's especially bad when you have high hopes because of the quality of the source material. Of course, by now you'd think we would learn that film adaptations aren't always up to par with the original novels. Fantasy fans and those who enjoyed the book aren’t even suggested to give this one a shot. No matter what your taste, Eragon is a terrible movie that just isn't worth the dough you'd have to shell out to see it.
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woopak_the_thrill
December 16, 2010
nice review.
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vampire_eyez
July 27, 2010
as great as the book was thats how awful the movie was! the acting SUCKED!!! and the story was so bad that if you didn't read the book (which alot of people didn't) you will have no clue whats going on! this film shouldn't have been allowed to use the book name for the title its so loosely based on the written version!
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More Eragon (movie) reviews
Don't waste your time. Fortunately, I'd read the book before seeing the movie, so I am not turned off of the series.
Comments (2)
Compliments (3)
god awful movie based loosely on an excillent book. the acting is dreadful and it dosent follow the book hardly at all. not worth the watch dont waste your time
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review by A1CJonathanLane.
February 20, 2010
Warning, may contain spoilers, but if you've seen Star Wars it's okay you'll see them coming anyway. The are no words to describe the anger, the unadulterated fury, the blinding rage, that I felt while I watched this sorry excuse for a film. Literally every shot in here is copied and pasted from one movie or another, whether it be Dragonheart - Collector's Edition or Braveheart or their two favorite sources The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy (Platinum … more
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review by arichards.
November 17, 2008
They took a long and detailed book And cut out all the frills This movie's just a summary Of Alagaësia's ills It doesn't build the characters There's too much plot left out You just don't get the feel of what The book is all about A boy, an egg, his destiny To fly on dragon's wings It tries too hard to be a clone Of THE Lord of the Rings … more
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Eragon is based on the novel by the same name by author Christopher Paolini. The film is about a young teen farmer who lives in a land controlled by an evil king named Galbatorix (John Malkovich). The story goes that there was a time when men and dragons fought together and Galbatorix betrayed his people and killed all the dragons and most of their riders. Now an unborn dragon named Saphira falls into the hands of young Eragon. The two are destined for each other to take out Galbatorix. So this … more
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About the reviewer
Logan Daniels (Logiedan)
Ranked #168
Ranked #168
Well, hi. I'm Logan. I like a lot of different stuff. Yep.
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About this movie
Cast:
Djimon Hounsou,
Jeremy Irons,
Alun Armstrong,
Rachel Weisz,
Sienna Guillory,
Robert Carlyle,
Caroline Chikezie,
Alan Shearman,
Mark Sussman,
Steven Speirs,
Paula Jane Newman,
Kenneth Danziger,
Peter Lavin,
Jean Gilpin,
Gary Lewis,
John Malkovich,
Joss Stone,
Peter Dennis,
Neil Dickson,
Garrett Hedlund,
John Gidcomb,
Diz White,
Chris Egan,
Spencer Wilding,
Sean Mahon,
Martin Jarvis,
Julian Barnes,
Ian Ruskin,
Randall Montgomery,
Agnes Banfalvy,
Ed Speleers,
Michael A. Mehlmann,
Tamás Deák,
Matt Devere,
Mate Haumann,
Andrea Fazekas,
Pál Makrai,
Gábor Tobágyi,
Maggie Baird,
Richard Rifkin,
Melissa Bickerton,
Neil Richardson,
Anthony Armatrading,
Kevin Owers,
Mark Silverman,
Deanne Mercer Dennis,
Warren Press
Director:
Stefen Fangmeier
Genre:
Fantasy,
Sci-Fi
Release Date:
December 15, 2006
MPAA Rating:
PG
Screen Writer:
Mark Rosenthal
Runtime:
103 minutes
Studio:
20th Century Fox,
Davis Entertainment
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