Review: Eragon

I did not read the novel that this movie is based on, so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the translation of the novel to the big screen (apparently numerous liberties have been taken, or so I am told). I can only approach the movie for what it is. And unfortunately for the most part it is a mess. The problem is that the director does not know what he is doing, coupled with a few actors who are either not very good or were not well-directed.

The biggest problem is that the movie suffers from scenes that do not flow together to provide a coherent story. The combination of camera angles, musical cues, and character actions do not combine to create the proper mood for a movie such as this. A story of this type has clear precedents to follow. It features a young boy who is coming of age and trying to find his destiny. It features oppressed people waiting for a leader to emerge to lead them out of their misery. It features evil bad guys who are faced with prophecies that predict their demise and are trying to kill the savior before he can topple them. One might think that in making a film with all these elements, it would be a good idea to study these films to see how to move a film from scene to scene. But instead the movie steals scenes outright from these other films, and then hastily glues together those scenes with filler scenes that are clumsily executed. There are also too many times where a character looks off to the side pensively and the scene ends in anticipation of the character learning something or doing something, but instead the next scene is unrelated to what just happened. It all feels like a film student's project rather than a polished movie.

There are also a few points where the actors deliver their lines quite poorly. The lines themselves are not inherently bad, so either the actors are not very good, or the director did not do a good job helping them to deliver their lines better. In defense of the actors, most of them appear to be quite young and are probably starring in their first major movie.

Having said that, the movie has several good points. The CG animation of the dragon is quite amazing, with very fluid motions, tons of detail, and even some expressive facial movements. The scenes of the dragon flying are extremely well-done, providing an exhilarating view from the skies. And more than that, after the halfway point of the movie there is a certain earnestness to the movie, an unpolished sincerity, that starts to make sense. The movie seems targeted towards children younger than those who would be interested in Lord of the Rings, and displays a certain naivete that has a charm on its own. Instead of being at all cynical with regards to its subject matter, and instead of injecting adult concerns and logic into the plot, the movie seems content to keep matters strictly in the realm of childlike fantasy. And on that level, the second half of the movie works.

So, while the movie's shortcomings keep it from being compared favorably to such epics as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars in terms of execution, plot coherence, and originality, on the other hand there is a certain innocence and naive charm that could easily work for younger audiences. It is probably worth a rental, especially if you have tween-aged boys in your household.