Release Date: December 15, 2006 Studio: 20th Century Fox MPAA Rating: PG Genre: Action •
Adventure Director: Stefen Fangmeier Writers: Peter Buchman, Christopher Paolini Cast: Edward Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich, Garrett Hedlund Synopsis: In his homeland of Alagaesia, a farm boy happens upon a dragon's egg -- a discovery that leads him on a predestined journey where he realized he's the one person who can defend his home against an evil king. The Review: You're Critic for the Evening: M
Good morning and thank you for flying Dragon Air. I'm Captain M and I'll be your reviewer today; please fasten all seat belts and return seats and trays to their full upright and locked position.
The trilogy begins...but will survive the first solo flight?
As one of the time traveling film critic from the future the rules from The Bureau for Universal Time Travel-Film Art Research Team prevent me from telling you about the rest of this possible movie series...at least I can tell you all about this first one now that I've caught up to it's time line.
Having not read the book (it was banned in the future after the dragon invasion of...oops) you won't get a side by side comparison from me. But seriously how many movies live up to the books they are based on? Very few my friends very few.
Christopher Paolini has taken standard myths and built a whimsy little tale in a universe all its own. Sure it's been done before, and it'll be done again, but few who try get it right and fewer still have done it by the age of 25 (yes he was born after the Facts of Life jumped the Shark, feeling old and unaccomplished yet?). Still parentless farm boys who becomes the chosen one to fight an evil empire never really gets old does it? Lets not count Wing Commander in this discussion ok? People get shot in my time for mentioning that movie.
In the last decade we've had a few movies hitting with the promise delivering some kick ass Dragon action, but not a single one has delivered the goods.
Dragonheart: Utter mess of a film. Neat dragon, lame story, even Dina Meyer had her hotness level toned down in the movie (a crime). Even Pete Postlethwaite, Jason Isaacs, David Thewlis could stop this train wreck. But I admit to giving this movie a spin from time to time, then again I like train wrecks.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Maybe I was too busy reading subtitles..or maybe the Dragon was really just that well hidden but NOT one dragon in this movie...come to think of it I don't recall seeing a crouching tiger either..lets skip this one for now.
Reign of Fire: TOTAL KICK ASS DRAGONS, Good simple story, but seriously this movie needs one simple thing to make it great...MORE DRAGONS!!! Sorry Powder even Bale and Butler's man hotness doesn't make this a perfect movie. But of the lot listed this movie is second runner to the old school Dragonslayer flick.
Dragon Fighter: Dean Cain fights against a cloned dragon? Well now we know how the Superman Curse works...watch your ass Brandon.
And Dragon Wars hasn't arrived in this timeline so...you'll have to wait.
Does Eragon live up to the promise about bringing the goods? Sort of..on a small scale.
*Spoilers Ahoy!*
The movie opens up with the entire back story spilled out like cliff notes for the Alagaesia impaired. It's like this: Once their were Dragon riders that protected the realm, until one day one of their own decided it would be a hoot to take over the world and pulled a "Palaptine" on them. Now the realm is ruled by King Galbatorix (John Malkovich) and Durza (Robert Carlyle) his pasty side kick with bad oral hygiene. With all the dragons and thier riders pushing up daisies the job was easier than getting pictures of Brintney Spears' Woo Hoo on a Friday night (Does she realize that some girls get paid to show that off?, I aint telling her mind you).
Now enter: Princess Arya (Sienna Guillory) resident trouble maker of the realm, who cleverly manages to steal a giant blue jelly bean from King Galbatorix and is currently on the run with her giant snack trying to save the world and her hotness (god bless her). Sadly she has a run in with Durza who wants the oversized jelly bean back (might explain the teeth), but before he can taste the rainbow she teleports it away and into the hands of Eragon, the young farm boy/chosen one.
With all the parts of the adventure in place now all we need is an Obi Wan type, you are in luck! Brom (Jeremy Irons) is on the job and ready to fill in the blanks and train our young hero in the ways of the force...err Dragon Riding and all things mystical and brooding. Off Topic: I'm a fan of Jeremy Irons, the guy just seems too cool for school...but even in the future we are still trying to uncover what sort of blackmail got him to take part in Dungeons & Dragons, seriously we've put a colony on Mars and proved that Mark S Allen's voice causes cancer in small animals but we still can't solve that mystery. Ok back on topic.
As Eragon starts to understand what he's found his uncle gets killed *cough*Uncle Owen*cough* and it's up to Brom and Eragon to protect the dragon and join the rebellion already in progress. Sounds all too familiar so far right? See The Power of Myth (Joseph Campbell) and mythologies connections to great storytelling components. It's not a new idea of course; it wasn't even back in 1977 kids. While all this does add a "Ok I've seen this before" thought it doesn't really gum up the works and shatter the films reality.
Most of the film is Eragon's journey to hook up with the rebels and learn what he can along the way. The pacing gets a little off at points and you just start to long for some action but the lull isn't too bad and it's not long before you get on track again.
One strange thing I noticed in the film was time and distance oddities. The bad guys would send out a group to go find and kill the dragon and Eragon who would be well into some hard five day ride, the group would find them, fail, and moments later they'd be back at HQ where Durza would pull a "Vader" and kill the person that failed him. Didn't GM prove those kind of work ethics don't improve production or morale? And just how are these guys getting around so fast and on foot no less? Makes one suspect a nice double extended DVD in Eragon's future.
As with all good stories of mythology the student must become the master and the master must be struck down leaving the hero with their lesson and alone to overcome the challenges without a crutch to lean on.
Eragon arrives at the rebel honeycomb hideout just in time for the Mel Gibson film festival and demon horde invasion. Without spoiling the movie for you, it's clearly a trilogy and therefore Eragon lives on to fight another day and by default so does his dragon.
Newcomer Edward Speleers handles the title role of Eragon as best as anyone could given the material, with a build in fan base casting is rarely an easy thing to get right and I think going with an unknown probably helped them a little on this.
All in all this movie fails more than it succeeds but it's like a fun kiddie ride at the state fair.
Any movie you can walk away from his a happy movie, it's those ones that make you want to hit yourself in the head with a ball ping hammer that you have to worry about. Rating:
